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THE NEW VOICE IN RACE 
ADJUSTMENTS 



ADDRESSES AND REPORTS PRESENTED AT 
THE NEGRO CHRISTIAN STUDENT CONFER- 
ENCE, ' ATLANTA, GEORGIA, MAY 14-18, 1914. 



A. M. Trawick, Editor 

Secretary in the Student Department, International 

Committee of the Young Men's Christian 

Association. 



Published by Order of the 
Executive Committee of the Conference 

By the 

Student Volunteer Movement 

25 Madison Avenue 

New York City 



.6" 



t;CV ^ 1915 



i> 



/ 



CONTENTS 

Introductory. page 

-. The CaU i 

"^ Registration 2 

1^ Morning Watch 6 

b> An Interpretation of the Conference. A. M. Trawick 8 

After the Conference — What? Rev. John E. Ford 15 

Suggestions for the Conservation of the Conference. W. D. 
Weatherford, Ph.D 16 

Part I. Addresses on General Themes. 

The Present World Situation. John R. Mott, LL.D 21 

The Basis of Race Progress in the South. Booker T. Washing- 
ton, LL.D 26 

^ The Challenge of Faith. Egbert W. Smith, D.D 29 

Christianity as a Basis of Common Citizenship. Professor William 

Pickens 34 

The Church in Relation to Growing Race Pride. C. V. Roman, 

M.D 40 

^ The Church as a Medium for Race Expression. Rev. C. T. 

Walker, D.D 50 

The Contribution of the Negro Race to the Interpretation of 
Christianity. President E. M. Poteat 54 

Relation of the Southern White Man to the Education of the 

Negro in Church Colleges. President J. D. Hammond 57 

The Social Message of the Church. Mrs. Arch Trawick 62 

V- Reality and Righteousness in the Training of Christian Workers. 

Thomas Jesse Jones 65 

Part II. Family Ideals among Southern Negroes. 

The Building of Homes. Mrs. J. D. Hammond 69 

Evil Conditions in City Homes and the Larger Responsibility. A. 

M. Trawick 74 

Part III. The Ministry. 

The Call of the Christian Pulpit. Rev. J. W. E. Bowen, D.D. .... 93 

Qualifications of the Minister. Rev. Robert E. Jones, D.D 96 

Present Weaknesses of the Ministry. Bishop W. P. Thirkield... 100 

Evangelism. Bishop George W. Clinton 107 

Part IV. Africa as a Mission Field. 

The Continent of Africa. Joseph C. Hartzell, Bishop of Africa, 

Methodist Episcopal Church 115 

The Response of Africa to the Gospel. Rev. W. H. Sheppard, 
D.D., F.R.G.S 120 

The Southern Negro's Debt and Responsibility to Africa. Presi- 
dent John W. Gilbert 129 

Part V. The Action of the Church in City and Country. 

City Missions for Colored People. Rev. John Little 137 

How We May Improve Our Colored Churches in the Country. 
T. C. Walker 139 



yi CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Service of the Country Church in Helping the Negro. Professor 
G. Lake Imes 145 

Work of a Neighborhood Union. Mrs. John Hope 153 

Part VI. Cooperation Between the Races. 

Signs of Growing Cooperation. Major R. R. Moton 161 

Cooperation of Southern White People. Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones. 168 

Signs of Growing Interest on the Part of the Southern White Man. 
W. D. Weatherford, Ph.D 172 

^ Ministers in Cooperation. Rev. James G. Snedecor, D.D 178 

"^ Cooperation Between Pastors of White and Colored Churches. 

Rev. R. O. Flynn, D.D 183 

Cooperation of White and Negro Ministers for Social Service. 
J. E. McCulloch 188 

Remarks to the Editors. Rev. G. B. Winton, D.D 194 

Part VII. Reports of Commissions. 

On the Enlistment of Educated Negroes for Work in Africa. 
President Frank K. Sanders 201 

On Securing Strong and Able Students for the Ministry. C. H. 

Tobias and D. D. Jones 209 

On the Work of the International Committee, Y. M. C. A. C. H. 
Tobias 211 

On the Work of the National Board Y. W. C. A. Mrs. W. A. 
Hunton 215 

Appendix 221 

Index 225 



INTRODUCTORY 

The Call 

Conference Registration 

An Interpretation 

On the Conservation of the Conference 



THE CALL OF THE 
NEGRO CHRISTIAN STUDENT CONFERENCE 

The Negro Christian Student Conference for preparation for 
Christian leadership at home and abroad, and for the deepening of 
the spiritual life of the delegates and the institutions they repre- 
sent, will be composed of a selected company of Christian students 
from institutions, collegiate, industrial and professional, attended 
by Negro young men and young women, together with a limited 
number of ministers, educators, editors and other outstanding leaders 
of both races. 

OBJECT 

The purposes of this Conference are: (i) to give to the present 
generation of Negro students in the United States a strong spiritual 
and moral impulse; (2) to study with thoroughness their responsi- 
bility for leadership in Christian work at home and abroad, thus 
bringing them face to face with Christian life callings; (3) to face 
the responsibility resting upon the Negro Churches of America to 
help meet the claims and crises of Africa; (4) to consider what 
light Christian thought may throw on present and future coopera- 
tion between the races. 

COMMITTEE 

The Conference is called by the following Committee : 

Dr. John R. Mott, Chairman of the Continuation Committee of 
the World Missionary Conference and General Secretary of the 
World's Student Christian Federation, 

Bishop Walter R. Lambuth, founder of the African Mission of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 

Bishop J. S. Flipper, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 

Dr. James H. Dillard, President of Anna T. Jeanes Foundation, 
and Secretary of the Slater Fund, 

Dr. S. C. Mitchell, President of the Medical College of Richmond, 
Virginia, 

President John Hope, M.A., Moorehouse College, Atlanta, 
Georgia, 

Major R. R. Moton, Commandant at Hampton Institute, Virginia, 

Rev. R. E. Jones, D.D., Editor Southwestern Christian Advocate, 
New Orleans, La., 

Miss Belle H. Bennett, President Women's Missionary Council 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Richmond, Kentucky. 

Miss Lucy Laney, Principal of Haines Institute, Augusta, Georgia. 



2 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

Delegates will be entertained free during the Conference through 
the generosity of friends interested in the Conference. 

A registration fee of one dollar will be charged for each delegate 
or other registered attendant. Payment of this fee must be made 
by check or post office money order when the lists are sent to the 
registrar. 

Admission to the Conference is limited to regular accredited dele- 
gates, i. e., those receiving certified tickets from the officers of the 
Conference. 

It is earnestly requested that prayer be offered continually for the 
blessing of our Heavenly Father upon the Conference and upon 
all the preparations. 

REGISTRATION 

Negro White Total 

Men Students 288 . . 288 

Women Students 182 . . 182 

Y. M. C. A. Secretaries 6 14 20 

Y. W. C. A. Secretaries 6 3 9 

Social Workers I7 ^9 36 

Bishops 3 4 7 

Missionaries 4 2 o 

Pastors 17 5 22 

Editors 2 I 5 

Church Board Secretaries • 8 3 n 

College Presidents 20 10 30 

Teachers 42 9 59 

Total 595 70 665 

STUDENT DELEGATIONS (INCLUDING TEACHERS IN NEGRO SCHOOLS) 

Total Foreign 

State No. Schools Delegation Countries 

Alabama 8 74 

Arkansas i ^ South America 

District of Columbia i 1 5 Africa 

Florida 3 20 West Indies 

Georgia I4 201 Denmark 

Kentucky i 4 

Louisiana 3 ^4 

Maryland i 3 

Mississippi 5 ^" 

North Carolina 15 67 

Ohio I 4 






THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

Total 

State No. Schools Delegation 

Oklahoma i 2 

Pennsylvania 2 5 

South Carolina 5 28 

Tennessee 8 46 

Texas 5 7 

Virginia 5 22 

West Virginia 2 3 



Total 81 5112 

NEGRO SCHOOLS REPRESENTED 

ALABAMA 

Agri'l and Mech. College Normal 

Central Ala. College Birmingham 

Miles Memorial College Birmingham 

Payne University Selma 

Stillman Institute Tuscaloosa 

Talladega College Talladega 

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee 

Selma University Selma 

ARKANSAS 

Philander Smith College Little Rock 

Shorter College Argenta 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 

Howard University Washington 

" M " Street High School Washington 

FLORIDA 

Bethel Baptist Institute Jacksonville 

Edward Waters College Jacksonville 

Florida Baptist Academy Jacksonville 

State A. and M. College Tallahassee 

GEORGIA 

Americus Institute Americus 

Atlanta University Atlanta 

Central City College Macon 

Clark University Atlanta 

Ft. Valley High and Ind. School Ft. Valley 

Gammon Theological Seminary Atlanta 

Moorehouse College Atlanta 

Morris Brown University Atlanta 

Paine College Augusta 



4 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

State Industrial College Savannah 

Haines Nor. and Ind. School Augusta 

Ballard Normal School Macon 

Rome High and Ind. School Rome 

Eddy High School Milledgeville 

KENTUCKY 

Lincoln Institute Simpsonville 

State University Louisville 

LOUISIANA 

Leland University New Orleans 

New Orleans University New Orleans 

Straight University New Orleans 

MARYLAND 

Morgan College Baltimore 

MISSISSIPPI 

Miss. Industrial College Holly Springs 

Meridian Academy Meridian 

Mary Holmes Seminary Westpoint 

Rust University Holly Springs 

Southern Christian Inst Edwards 

Utica Normal and Ind. Inst Utica 

NORTH CAROLINA 

A. & M. College Greensboro 

Bennett College Greensboro 

Biddle University Charlotte 

J. K. Brick Ind. School Bricks 

Henderson N. & I. Institute Henderson 

Lincoln Academy Kings Mountain 

Livingstone College Salisbury 

Mary Potter Memorial School Oxford 

National Religious Training School Durham 

Normal and Ind. College High Point 

Palmer Memorial School Sedalia 

Shaw University Raleigh 

Slater Ind. School Winston-Salem 

State Normal School Elisabeth City 

St. Augustine School Raleigh 

OHIO 

Wilberforce University Xenia 

OKLAHOMA 

A. & M. University Langston 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

PENNSYLVANIA 

Cheyney Institute Cheyney 

Lincoln University Lincoln 

SOUTH CAROLINA 

Allen University Columbia 

Benedict College Columbia 

Claflin University Orangeburg 

Harbison College Irmo 

Penn School St. Helena 

Voorhees Ind. School Denmark 

TENNESSEE 

Fisk University Nashville 

Howe Institute Memphis 

Knoxville College Knoxville 

Lane College Jackson 

Meharry Medical College Nashville 

Morristown Normal College Morristown 

Roger Williams Univ Nashville 

State Normal School Nashville 

Walden University Nashville 

TEXAS 

Central Texas College Waco 

Prairie View Normal and Ind. College Prairie View 

Samuel Houston College Austin 

Wiley University Marshall 

Tillotson College Austin 

VIRGINIA 

Hampton N. and A. Inst Hampton 

Manassas Ind. Inst Manassas 

St. Paul N. & I. School Lawrenceville 

Virginia Theol. Sem. and College Lynchburg 

Virginia Union Univ Richmond 

WEST VIRGINIA 

Storer College Harper's Ferry 

W. Va. Colored Inst Institute 






THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS REPRESENTED 



Baptist 

Christian 

Congregational 

Episcopal 

Lutheran 

Methodist 



Presbyterian 



Reformed 
Roman Catholic 



fA. M. E. 
A. M. E., Zion 
C. M. E. 
M. E. 
M. E., South 

Northern 
Southern 
United 



MORNING WATCH 

FRIDAY, MAY 1 5 

THE SPIRIT OF UNITY 
Read John xvii. 

OBJECTS FOR INTERCESSION 

Pray that the spirit of unity, mutual consideration and unselfish- 
ness may possess all the delegates of the Conference. 

Pray that this may be a nation in which each man may wish for 
all men such a fair chance at all good things as every man would 
like his brother to have. 

Pray that all problems growing out of race antipathy may be set- 
tled in the light of the Gospel and in the Spirit of Christ. 

PRAYER 

O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Saviour, 
the Prince of Peace ; give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great 
dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions. Take away all hatred 
and prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder us from Godly union 
and concord ; that, as there is but one body and one Spirit, and one 
hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and 
Father of us all, so we may henceforth be all of one heart and of 
one soul, united in one holy bond of truth, and peace, of faith and 
charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify Thee; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 7 

SATURDAY, MAY l6 

THE SPIRIT OF FAITH 
Read Hebrews xi:32-4o; xii:i-3. 

OBJECTS FOR INTERCESSION 

Pray that we may not limit God by the poverty of our faith. 

Pray that a greater burden of responsibility may come upon our 
students for deepening the spiritual life of the nation. 

Pray for the missions of South Africa as they face their peculiar 
problems. 

PRAYER 

O Almighty God, who makest us both to will and to do those 
things which are well pleasing in Thy sight, stir up, we beseech 
Thee, the pure minds of Thy children. Bless all means employed 
for the instruction of the young ; implant in their hearts such grati- 
tude for Thy Gospel as will make them eager sharers in bringing 
others to the knowledge of Thee and of Thy Son Jesus Christ ; so 
that many may be brought out of darkness and error into the glorious 
liberty of the children of God ; to the praise of Thy name, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 



SUNDAY, MAY I7 

THE SPIRIT OF SERVICE 
Read Matthew x:5-25; xxviii: 18-20; Acts i :8. 

OBJECTS FOR INTERCESSION 

Pray that any of the delegates who may not have yielded them- 
selves absolutely to Jesus Christ as Lord, may do so to-day, resolv- 
ing henceforth to do His will and not their own. 

Pray that our students may have the proper scale of values ; that 
they may be led to seek a mission rather than a career. Pray for 
world-wide missions — Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North and 
South America. 

PRAYER 

O God, Who hast made of one blood all nations of men for to 
dwell on the face of the earth, and didst send Thy blessed Son to 
preach peace to them that are far off and to them that are nigh; 
grant that all men everywhere may seek after Thee and find Thee. 
Bring the nations into Thy fold, and add the heathen to Thine in- 
heritance. And we pray Thee shortly to accomplish the number of 
Thine elect, and to hasten Thy Kingdom, through the same Jesus 
Christ, our Lord. Amen. 



8 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

MONDAY, MAY 1 8 

THE SPIRIT OF ENDURANCE 
Read II Timothy ii:i-i5. 

OBJECTS FOR INTERCESSION 

Pray that the impression of this Conference may be communi- 
cated to students in all our colleges. 

Pray that we may be responsive to the claims of the eight millions 
of our people in rural communities. 

PRAYER 

O Lord, our Saviour, Who hast warned us that Thou wilt require 
much of those to whom much is given; grant that we, whose lot 
Thou hast cast in so goodly a heritage, may strive together the more 
abundantly by prayer, by almsgiving, and by every other appointed 
means, to extend to others what we so richly enjoy ; and as we have 
entered into the labors of other men, so to labor that in their turn 
other men may enter into ours, to the fulfilling of Thy holy will 
and our everlasting salvation. Amen. 

THE NEGRO CHRISTIAN STUDENT CONFERENCE 
A. M. TRAWICK, NASHVILLE, TENN. 

" One of the most significant gatherings ever held in this coun- 
try," was the statement of Dr. John R. Mott in calling to order the 
Negro Christian Student Conference at Atlanta May 14 to 18. 
These words were both prophecy and history. The prophecy grew 
out of a broad view of the hastening Kingdom of God on earth. 
The historical facts growing out of the Conference remain to be 
gathered up in years to come, but if its purpose, message and spirit 
can penetrate the heart of the church in the South, it will more than 
justify the memorable words of its Chairman. 

The Committee calling this Conference was one qualified to in- 
spire confidence throughout the North American Christian World 
in its sincerity of eflfort in attempting to attain this high objective. 
At the head of the Committee was Dr. John R. Mott, Chairman of 
the Continuation Committee of the World Missionary Conference 
and General Secretary of the World's Student Christian Federation. 
Thus, in Dr. Mott's intimate relation to World movements, this Con- 
ference was, at once, linked with two of the mightiest impulses 
which have stirred the Christian world within recent years. It is 
well to emphasize the fact that the Negro Conference at Atlanta 
was not merely a Southern student gathering, but a movement which 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 9 

was vitally related to the World Christian enterprise of missionary 
and student leaders. 

THE NEED OF SUCH A CONFERENCE 

It will not be difficult for those who have studied the movement 
of Negro life and thought in recent years to discern the great need 
of just such a convention as was held in Atlanta. The Negro is 
yearning for a better expression of his religious life. It would be 
strange indeed if generations of Christian teaching and exhortation 
had failed to produce in the Negro of the present day an ambition 
to share his religious life in greater fullness with the whole world. 
The Negro church has reached a point in its development where it 
is impossible for it to maintain its hold upon vital principles unless 
there is a tremendous enlargement of its activity in relation to world 
movements. It is as impossible for the Negro church as for the 
church of other people to be strong and vital without touching the 
needs of the entire human family. Turned upon itself alone, the 
Negro church will never accomplish its high destiny among the fam- 
ily of churches, but acknowledging its responsibility for its own 
interpretation of Christian life, it becomes energetic with a new 
impulse to discharge a life-giving mission. The Atlanta Conference 
was one step forward in the racial interpretation of Christianity 
which shall be the Negro's chief contribution to the progress of the 
world. 

There was need of such a convention in order to provide an 
expression of the religion which white men and women in the South 
profess to practice. It is at variance with Christian integrity to 
confess the brotherhood of man and continue to live in complacent 
indifiference to its claim at our own doors. It is no insignificant thing 
for white men and women to be constantly confronted with the 
fact that in the South they are not displaying an active brotherly 
Ufe in harmony with their ideals. The greatest of all evils growing 
out of the contact of the two races on the Southern soil is the dis- 
regard of the claims of justice, kindness and brotherly love, and the 
absence of these essential traits has too often marked the lives of 
even the best men and women of the white church in their relation 
to their Negro neighborhood. It has come to be unbearable in the 
minds of many that there should be habitual injustice and unkind- 
ness in the treatment of the Negro while Christian white people 
accept the circumstances as being outside the range of their lively 
interest. The existence of the " Negro problem " is a test of the 
white man's religion rather than the Negro's; for its effect is 
seen in the weakening and silencing of the corporate conscience, 
and this, in its ultimate consequence, is far more damaging than the 
injury suffered by any number of individuals. The Southern White 
Church needed this Conference in order to demonstrate to the 



lO THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

world that its religion is henceforth as broad and complex as its 
life in contact with the Negro. 

THE METHOD OF THE CONFERENCE 

In reading over the list of the Coinmittee issuing the call of the 
convention, it is observed that white and Negro Christians cooper- 
ated in setting forth the objects and securing the speakers and the 
leaders. Many of the speakers and leaders were Southern Chris- 
tians whose sanity and tact are unquestioned and whose ability to 
meet a delicate situation has been tested through repeated experi- 
ence. Nothing was done at this convention, and nothing was said 
or purposed which a spirit of cordial Christian cooperation can not 
reproduce in every local church throughout the entire South. There 
was a free expression of opinion by both white and colored speak- 
ers, a sincere setting forth of ideals and problems resulting from de- 
liberate purpose to understand one another, and the result was that 
each received the other's point of view. In the spirit of this gath- 
ering the white Christian, addressing his fellow Christian, can say : 
" Let us understand and trust the Negro." The Negro Christian, 
addressing a group of his fellow Christians, can say, in turn, with 
equal sincerity : " Let us understand and trust the white Chris- 
tians." This was the method pursued throughout the Atlanta con- 
vention. Its spirit of mutual respect and confidence can mean 
nothing less for the South than a joint advance toward a brighter 
day when all men shall better understand one another and shall judge 
more kindly one another's motives and ambitions. 

SOME THINGS THAT WERE DONE 

It would be strange indeed if, with all preparation in prayer and 
thought, the student conference in Atlanta had not resulted in a 
very definite movement toward a better reality in life adjustments. 
It may be said, without fear of contradiction, that the fourfold pur- 
pose with which the convention was called was left in the minds and 
hearts of all who come to Atlanta as seed-truths to bear fruit in 
future days. It is too early to attempt a portrayal of the purpose 
which was wrought into the lives of the delegates, but it is not a 
rash declaration to say that the religious life of students was tre- 
mendously advanced; that a definite missionary obligation was as- 
sumed by many ; that a larger place was assigned to the church and 
that Christianity was set forth as the only sufficient basis of race 
cooperation. 

" Co5peration " was a frequent and never a misused word at the 
Conference. One speaker emphasized the fact that more evidences 
of thorough going race-cooperation had been manifest during the 
last five years than ever before in the South, and another appeal 
called attention to the large number of Southern white students, 
approximating ten thousand, that had during the past three years 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS II 

enrolled in classes for the voluntary study of Negro life. These 
facts furnished the basis for a wider exhortation to members of all 
churches to discover means of further unselfish service. 

The Conference did much, both by word and by conduct, to advo- 
cate racial pride and racial integrity. Nothing was said or done 
to suggest segregation, but everything it is desirable to achieve by 
separation was emphasized in harmony with best social and Chris- 
tian principles. Between segregation and separation there are broad 
and essential differences. Segregation comes by force, separation 
by natural choice. Segregation is the voice of the stronger, saying 
to the less fortunate, " Thou shalt not " ; separation is the voice of 
self-confidence saying, " I prefer to do this." All the good that any 
radical advocate of race exclusion desires to see accomplished 
through segregation is easily obtained through separation without 
the attending evils of hatred, class prejudice and other animosity, 
resulting from the exercise of force. No word was said at At- 
lanta to cause the Negro to feel that he is less of a man and less 
entitled to respect because of the fact that he is a Negro. On the 
other hand, much was said to cause him to be proud of his racial 
identity and to persuade him to accept his place in the divine 
ordering of things and to strive hopefully for the accomplishment 
of the evident purpose of his creation. 

Questions bearing upon points of weakness and defects of char- 
acter, such as criminality and lawlessness, were excluded from the 
Conference programme, not because the Committee calling the Con- 
ference and arranging its programme had no convictions upon 
these subjects, but because their solution is inevitably involved in 
the progress of the Negro toward nobler and loftier aims, just as 
they are destined to disappear in the upward progress of every 
other race. In like manner points of controversy in race adjust- 
ments were not taken into consideration by the Committee, the 
assumption being that proper adjustments would rationally follow 
a citizenship strengthened in its moral and spiritual life. The 
programme adhered to the four points included under the " Objects 
of the Conference," believing that a deeper spiritual life is the 
first need of every church in the South. 

Many things were done that marked the creation of new friend- 
ships. Many of the delegates and visitors had known each other 
by reputation for years, but some of them were thrown together for 
the first time during the progress of this meeting. They learned, 
by personal contact, how to value each other's worth and how to 
estimate each other's purposes. Friendships were formed among 
students of various schools and among workers in various parts of 
the country which will endure when things less important have been 
forgotten. This friendship takes the comprehensive form of a 
determination henceforth to help each other, to believe in each other 
and to bear each other's burdens in the spirit of Christian fidelity. 



12 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

Among the things that were done, none will bear more important 
fruit than the emphasis upon home improvement. It was not an 
accident that put the discussion of home life at the very forefront 
of all the deliberations at the Convention. It goes without the 
saying that there is no advance in race integrity without an improve- 
ment of family life and a stimulation of family ideals. The honor 
of man, the protection of woman, the safe-guarding of little chil- 
dren were emphasized as the foundation stones of a permanent 
civilization. 

Worthy of special mention among the things accomplished is 
the strong endorsement of the work of the Student Young Men's 
and the Young Women's Christian Associations. The activity of 
these student organizations in past years has been productive of 
an enlarged vitality in the spiritual, mental and social life of many 
college groups, but the student field has been cultivated in only a 
small part. The traveling Secretaries of both men and women 
student movements have accomplished results surprising in their 
richness and permanency, but the things done touch only a portion 
of the important field that remains to be exploited. A much larger 
number of young men and women is needed to enter the work of 
the Secretaryship in colleges and universities and in this richly 
rewarding task heroic leadership and sacrificial devotion are quali- 
ties of the first consideration. 

Students in all institutions of learning were urged by the Con- 
ference to study, through the Association Voluntary classes, the 
social problems confronting the North American Church in order 
to enter sympathetically into their solutions. Such study embraces 
the use of the text books issued by the Young Men's and the Young 
Women's Christian Associations and extends to first hand inves- 
tigations of actual conditions in the College neighborhood. The 
acquisition of knowledge concerning these facts must, if the knowl- 
edge is to become vital, be attended at every step by definite service 
as often as the need is discovered. 

Opportunities for service will be discovered through local 
churches, City and County Mission stations and through organiza- 
tions of the allied agencies that are helpful to promote the progress 
of God's kingdom upon the earth. Students can render invaluable 
service in evangelistic deputations, in visits to proclaim the social 
message of the Church and in summer vacation activities, wherever 
the vacation months may be spent. 

Through a special commission, the Conference issued a challenge 
to young men to enter the ministry. Many of the weaknesses 
which confront the present-day church were candidly confessed 
and it was resolved on all sides that the best means of correcting 
these weaknesses was to stimulate a strong ministry. The note 
was therefore sounded, which will be echoed throughout all the 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 13 

schools and colleges of the land, calling upon the best young men 
to accept the ministry as the call of God for their life work. It 
is not a comforting reflection that other callings are claiming the 
allegiance of student men in larger proportion than the ministry. 
The Commission brought in a strong appeal to the members of 
the Conference to keep in mind this apparent neglect of a vital 
need. The full report of this commission should be read and its 
message spoken from every pulpit and proclaimed through the 
church press, so that young men shall be without excuse if they 
refuse to confess their own obligation. 

A special meeting of ministers and editors was held to devise 
plans to promote the pubHcity of the Conference through the pul- 
pit and the press. Ministers of all churches, both white and col- 
ored, are requested to preach upon the spirit and message of the 
Atlanta gathering, and to do all in their power to help forward the 
good work that was here so wonderfully begun. It was also de- 
termined to ask editors of all church papers throughout the entire 
South to devote editorial space to the same worthy discussion. In 
this manner the result of the Conference will continue to grow until 
all Christian people of all sects and creeds, both white and Negro, 
will have at least a part of the inspiration of this occasion. It was 
rightly judged that there are no agencies in the land better quaH- 
fied to direct public opinion upon this all-important question than 
the pastors in their pulpit and the editors in control of their period- 
icals. 

Among the things that were done should be mentioned a richer 
and more comprehensive programme of church activity. The 
spiritual message of the Church was enlarged to embrace the obli- 
gation of the average church member, and it was also seen and 
duly recognized that the Negro church in America can never fulfill 
its destiny without the cordial cooperation of the white churches. 
It was boldly declared that one of the great needs of the times is 
for an interchange of visits between pastors of the white and 
colored churches, involving preaching service in one another's pul- 
pits. It was declared also that the churches have a place in the 
promotion of such fundamental matters as health, education and 
the regeneration of social forces. The spirit of the Conference 
was expressed in the sublime conception that whatever men need 
to have done for them, God expects His church to do, and the 
Church in the South is composed of white Christians and Negro 
Christians. Therefore, it is only by working together that the 
churches can do the things the South needs to have done. 

There are fields of labor in Southern territory which the Church 
has never occupied. There are neglected slums in the cities, groups 
of Negroes working upon plantations, in turpentine camps, in 
swamps, in railroad construction and many other places where the 



14 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTxMENTS 

voice of Christianity is seldom or never heard. This home field 
was held out to the awakening conscience of Negro students as a 
worthy place for a life investment. 

The Conference also turned its heart towards Africa, the Negro's 
remote fatherland, and through the messages which were brought 
from that almost forgotten land, both the opportunity and the 
responsibility were laid upon consecrated Negro students to re- 
spond to its call as the will of God for them in life service. But 
even more important than all was the exhortation to the Negro 
Church of the South to accept the whole world as its responsible 
field of Christian endeavor. The result of this World vision upon 
the Negro churches of the South time itself can properly reveal. 

There were many decisions during the conference days for 
definite religious service, and there were others among the dele- 
gates who returned to their homes to deliberate concerning their 
personal duties in regard to the extension of the world-wide King- 
dom. Many individuals solemnly arrived at a conviction that their 
lives henceforth should be given to a declaration of the will of 
God to all human needs in whatever profession or life work they 
entered. Many were heard to declare that henceforth their religion 
should not find its expression merely in the salvation of their own 
lives but in the transmission of their religious impressions into 
action which should deliberately seek to transform the whole cor- 
porate life into the likeness of the Kingdom of God. 

The most important of all the consequences of the Atlanta Con- 
ference was the dominant spirit of hope, giving character to all its 
utterances. There was no pessimism in any declaration, no despair 
in any address, no hate in any heart, but there was an abounding, 
perfect confidence that the everliving God is working His purposes 
in the lives of men. No one deliberately closed his eyes to the 
seriousness of the problem ; no one was unaware of the verj' difficult 
and delicate situation which confronts the two races in the South ; 
but the difficulties were not exaggerated and the dangers were not 
enlarged into imaginary fears. They were taken for their full 
worth, but over and above them all. there was the hope and assured 
confidence that what God has promised He will faithfully per- 
form. The Conference closed, therefore, on the upward grade, 
and the delegates returned to their own fields of labor with a new 
confidence in the future augmented by the consciousness that there 
are many witnesses to the Christian enterprise upon which they 
have entered. The profound spiritual impact of this conference 
was comprehended by Dr. Mott who based his final exhortation 
upon the words of the writer to the Hebrews: "Therefore — let 
us fling aside every encumbrance and the sin that so readily en- 
tangles our feet, And let us run with patient endurance the race 
that lies before us, simply fixing a gaze upon Jesus, our Prince 
Leader in the Faith, who will also award us the prize." 






THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 15 

AFTER THE CONFERENCE — WHAT? 

REV. JOHN E. FORD, 

Bethel Colored Baptist Institutional Church, Jacksonville, Fla. 

Having been requested by the Committee to swing away from 
my subject and get at the heart of this gathering, I shall attempt 
to summarize and apply the subjects and papers discussed with a 
view to definite and immediate action. 

Two big words have loomed up large in this meeting. 

1. The first is — The needs; these have been clearly, comprehen- 
sively and adequately presented, by the splendid word pictures of 
those who have spoken on the needs of the foreign and home fields, 
the neighborhood and local fields. The pictures presented have 
been inclusive and vivid. " We have come and heard and seen." 

2. The second great word emphasized in this convention has 
been — equipment; interpreted by preparation and fitness. This 
many here already possess, others are in the course of preparing. 
This preparation includes the physical, mental and spiritual, and 
now that emphasis had been laid upon equipment, many of you 
who still have opportunity will see to it that your further prepara- 
tion will be thorough and complete. Now I come to the third 
word that we are to strenuously emphasize. It is the main object 
of all that has gone before. 

3. Application. After sober reflection on the need and equip- 
ment, what are we going to do about it? This is our part on the 
programme. The great question is, individually, consciously, 
What shall I do? 

THERE ARE FOUR THINGS WE MAY DO 

(i) Admit the light; truth, information, facts, appeals and invi- 
tations we have heard. It is worth something intelligently, thought- 
fully, seriously to admit the facts, the needs, the calls, to reflect 
upon them and permit them to thoroughly grip us. 

(2) We can submit to them, give ourselves over to them, let 
them not appeal to us in vain. We can make a trial of our faith, 
an exercise of our power. In fact, we can afford to give our re- 
ligious impulse a trial. Let us give it a laboratory test. After 
reading Matt, v, vi, vii, let us turn to the eighth chapter and see 
what we find in passing from the mount to the valley; from con- 
templation to duty ; from teaching to service ; from power to appli- 
cation. 

(3) This is the time for enlistment. The hour of decision has 
come, the opportunity to say : " I will submit to the will of God," 
and like Paul, to exclaim : " I was not disobedient to the Heav- 



l6 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

enly vision." To test my faith by decision and my conviction by 
submission is the supreme challenge of this hour. 

(4) The fourth thing we may do is to transmit our convicti(j<is 
to the world by cooperation, 

Christianity is not static but kinetic. It moves out and on and 
up to new vision, new strength and duty. The best definition of 
religion is — " Doing the impossible." Ordinary people do the pos- 
sible but Christianity is constantly engaged in doing what men call 
the impossible. Now I do not wish to be regarded as a theorist 
or that I hold Christianity to be impracticable. We are not in a 
losing but in a winning warfare, but how are we to do the impos- 
sible? The simple key to the impossible is by doing persistently, 
intelligently, patiently, promptly, the things that are possible and 
these lead into things that before seemed totally impossible; doors 
open that seemed impossible; ways clear that appeared impossible; 
mountains remove that seemed immovable, and lives that gave 
promise of little or no service move along the lines of usefulness 
and constantly enlarging power. Now, gathering up the four big 
words of our Convention and focusing attention upon them, we 
say : " Let us resolve now and here to throw our talent and life 
into cooperation for our fellowman." 

May the Divine Spirit help each one of us to offer ourselves now 
and here to definite Christian Service. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CONSERVATION OF THE 

CONFERENCE 

W. D. WEATHERFORD, Ph.D. 

Secretary in the Student Department, International Committee, 
Young Men's Christian Association, 

Recognizing fully the difficulties of making this conference a 
reality in our communities, recognizing fully the handicaps under 
which the colored people in the South labor, and recognizing just 
as fully the fact that all cooperation is two-sided, — that both races 
need to be ready to do their share in bridging the chasm of mis- 
understanding, we wish to make the following suggestions for the 
conservation of the work of this conference. 

First — We believe that race cooperation can be promoted only 
by the good spirit which has characterized this gathering. Bitter- 
ness of expression, sarcasm and stinging words from either side 
will never bring us together in brotherly fellowship. Here we 
have had Negro men and women, and Southern white men and 
women, meeting side by side in the spirit of friendliness. We were 
told by timid souls we could not do this, but we have done it, — 
and this is not the first time. If this can be done here, then all 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 17 

the people in the South can do this, when the spirit of Jesus suffi- 
ciently dominates our hearts that colored and white alike forget 
their prejudices, their grievances, and their difficulties and rejoice 
in a chance for united service. We would, therefore, recommend 
that members of this conference go back to their respective com- 
munities to urge this mutual confidence and answering trust be- 
tween the races. 

Second — Believing as we do that religion is life, and life is 
right relationship, we recommend that a renewed emphasis be 
placed on a sane but aggressive evangelism. To this end we rec- 
ommend that white and colored churches in various cities and in 
country communities enter upon united evangelistic campaigns, such 
as have been so successfully conducted in some of our Southern 
communities. 

Third — Believing that faith and mutual understanding will be 
promoted not by criticism but by service, we recommend that an 
effort be made in every community to unite the races in community- 
wide social work. This work may well take the direction of im- 
proving health conditions, working out a plan of sanitation for all 
sections of the city, seeing to it that the housing conditions are 
improved, that saloons and houses of pollution are not saddled 
on any part of the community, and that back alleys, back yards 
and other hidden spots be cleaned up — thus working for a truer 
and sweeter community life. 

Fourth — Believing that ignorance is always the harbinger of 
prejudice, we wish to urge that white and colored colleges and 
churches alike start thorough classes in the study of the condi- 
tions of the needy people of both white and colored in our cities. 
This conference is the legitimate outgrowth of just such study 
groups in scores of colleges and churches, both white and colored. 
Fifth — Recognizing that seventy per cent, of the colored people 
live in the country, and seventy per cent, of our white people in 
the South live in the country, we recommend that our colleges give 
much attention to the organization of classes in the study of the 
country problem, including the study of the country church and 
the country school, rural sanitation and health, and rural economics. 
Sixth — We recommend further that every delegate shall seek 
every opportunity to report, not only the facts, but also the spirit 
of this conference in the colleges, churches, young people's so- 
cieties, and public schools of their local communities. We should 
all write one or more articles for our local papers. If this con- 
ference has brought heart and confidence to us, we have a definite 
obligation to take this message of confidence and answering trust 
back to those who have not had this privilege. If this conference 
does not send us away, both white and colored, with a sweeter 
temper, with a greater confidence, with a profounder faith in each 
other, then it has been a failure, and just in so far as any one of 



l8 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

us goes away to criticise, to complain, to nurse our prejudices or 
our wrongs, just in so far has this conference failed. Mutual 
confidence, mutual respect, mutual trust and love are the keynotes 
of this conference, and these keynotes can alone be made to dom- 
inate our lives through the spirit of Jesus Christ, and it is our 
obligation to foster this spirit in both races. 

The most marked characteristic of Jesus Christ lay in the fact, 
that though He always spoke with perfect frankness, His words 
were touched with that sweet gentleness that left no sting in the 
human heart. 

If the members of this company go back to their several com- 
munities to speak frankly, but without bitterness or rancor, we 
shall have made a valuable contribution toward the removing of 
barriers between man and man. In all the days to come may it 
be said of us as it was said of the Great Deliverer — a bruised reed 
would He not break and smoking flax would He not quench. 



GENERAL THEMES 

The Present World Situation 
Basis of Race Progress 
Basis of Common Citizenship 
The Church and Race Pride 
The Church and Race Expression 
Race Interpretation of Christianity 
Reality and Righteousness 



THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION 
JOHN R. MOTT 

The forces of pure Christianity as they face the non-Christian 
nations and peoples are confronting an absolutely unprecedented 
world situation. Certainly it is unprecedented in opportunity. In 
this respect there has been nothing like it in the annals of the 
Christian faith. There have been times when in a few countries 
the doors opened to the friendly and constructive mission of Chris- 
tianity were as wide open as they are to-day ; but there never has 
been a time when simultaneously in so many sections of the world 
the opportunities for the extension of the Christian religion were 
so numerous and so extensive as at the present time. This is the 
situation in the Far East and the Near E^st, in Southern Asia, in 
the Pacific Island world, in nearly all parts of Africa and in Latin 
America. Moreover, so far as one can penetrate the future, there 
is not likely to come a time when the opportunities will be greater 
than those with which the Christian Church must deal to-day. 
Where, after China, is there another nation of four hundred mil- 
lions of people to turn from an ancient past and to swing out into 
the full stream of modern Christian civilization? Where is there 
another continent after India to be swept by the spirit of unrest 
and to be made peculiarly accessible to the reconstructive processes 
of Christianity? Where is there another continent after Africa 
for which Mohammedanism and Christianity can contend ? Where, 
after Turkey and the Nile Valley, is there another keystone to the 
vast arch of the Mohammedan world to have cast across it seams 
of weakness making possible the disrupting of the whole system ? 

What lends added significance to the present situation is that this 
unparalleled enlargement of opportunity comes at a time when the 
Christian Church is called upon to deal with some of the most 
difficult problems with which it has ever had to grapple on the 
home field. This is true of North America, of Western and North- 
ern Europe, of Australasia and South Africa. Why is it that at 
the very time the Christian forces have more to do than ever at 
the home base, they are also confronted with an immeasurably 
greater opportunity abroad than that which has faced any preceding 
generation of Christians? May it not be because God sees that 
there is now on the earth a generation of Christians with whom He 
can trust a situation literally worldwide in its sweep? With His 
all-seeing eye He pierces beneath the surface and recognizes latent 
in the Christians of our day capacities for vision, for adventure, 
for heroism, for statesmanship, and for vicariousness which, if 

21 



22 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

realized and accompanied by His own superhuman forces, make 
possible the meeting of this unprecedented world situation. 

The present world situation is likewise unprecedented in danger. 
We are living at the most dangerous time in the history of the world. 
This is due to the growing shrinkage of the world caused by the 
greatly improved means of communication. In many ways the 
whole world now is smaller than was the United States east of the 
Mississippi River a generation ago. It is indeed one great neigh- 
borhood ; it has also become a whispering gallery. As a result the 
nations and races are acting and re-acting upon each other with 
startling directness, power, constancy and too often virulence. This 
has led to grave perils. One danger is the multiplication of fric- 
tion points between races and peoples brought into more intimate 
association. Some had hoped that this new century might be 
ushered in with worldwide peace and goodwill among the nations 
and races ; but possibly more than the beginning of any preceding 
century has this one been characterized by national and racial mis- 
understandings, prejudices, bitterness and strife. The mingling of 
peoples, the clashing of civilizations, and the processes which char- 
acterize the modern scientific age have led to a marked relaxing and 
weakening of the sanctions and restraints of the social customs and 
the ethical and religious systems of the non-Christian peoples. 
This is in itself a very grave danger. Moreover, one of the most 
alarming perils is that of the demoralization which takes place 
where two or more races are brought into contact with each other 
without the restraining and transforming influence of a greater 
than human power. There is something which mysteriously yet 
certainly takes place under such conditions — something which 
tends to draw the worst out of each race. Equally true it is that 
the best is called out when the principles and spirit of vital Chris- 
tianity are brought at such a time to bear on the races concerned. 
How true it is, that in a race as in an individual there are not only 
heights that lay hold of highest heaven but depths that lay hold of 
deepest hell! The worst places to be found anywhere on earth 
are those where races have been thrown against each other without 
the presence and manifestation of the superhuman forces of pure 
Christianity. That there is a danger also of a growing consolida- 
tion of non-Christian peoples against the ideals and purposes which 
are most distinctive to the Christian religion there can be no ques- 
tion. The fact that it is not an organized or formal opposition 
conducted by systematic policy or design is all the more significant. 

What is the secret of counteracting and overcoming these mo- 
mentous perils? Some still appeal for a policy of segregation. 
They insist that the only hope of averting these alarming dangers 
is by separating the races from each other. Even though such a 
course might have been practicable in other days, it is so no longer. 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 23 

It may be possible for countries like America, Canada, and Aus- 
tralia to exclude orientals from their borders, but it is not possible 
in this day of industrial and commercial expansion to keep the 
aggressive young men of Europe and America out of Asia and 
Africa. Moreover, the countless international contacts which have 
been established in recent years manifest the absolute futility of 
any attempt in this day to keep nations and peoples in water-tight 
compartments. Others argue in favor of amalgamation as a means 
of diminishing the dangers which so threaten the world. History 
as well as present-day experience in certain parts of the world show 
that such a course would follow the line of least resistance and is 
inevitably attended with results of the most serious character. In 
the, judgment of many leaders in different nations a policy of mili- 
tary and naval domination is the only hope of making the world 
safe. It should be pointed out, however, as the late Sir Robert 
Hart so aptly showed at the time of the Boxer uprising, that this 
would require a military establishment so colossal that it would 
break down the powers of the world to maintain it. It should be 
added also that this would tend to accentuate the very danger 
which we wish to avoid. 

In every quarter of the world many put forward education as 
the secret of insuring the proper well-being of peoples and of good- 
will among the nations. It should not be forgotten that to-day as 
in the past some of the best educated nations are those most in 
danger from these gravest perils. Leaders of Japan have expressed 
themselves with solicitude concerning the breakdown in character 
of men in public and commercial life. It is not surprising, there- 
fore, that under the auspices of the Government there was held 
in Japan as recently as 191 1 a conference of leaders of the different 
religions to consider among other things what religion can do to 
strengthen or buttress the morals of a nation. Education alone in 
any country merely sharpens the weapons and makes men more 
successful in using them. But using them for what, and against 
what? It was said of Lorenzo di Medici, one of the great Italian 
scholars, " He was cultured but corrupt ; wise but cruel ; spending 
the morning writing a sonnet in praise of virtue and spending the 
night in vice." It matters not how well educated a man may be 
if he goes out into the world with a corrupt heart, an ungoverned 
will and low ideals, he is a menace to society and a seam of weak- 
ness in the life of the nation. 

What then will afford a helpful environment and insure right 
feelings and relationships between nations and races? The only 
programme which can meet all the alarming facts of the situation 
is the worldwide spread of Christianity in its purest form. In 
other words, it is not a matter of external arrangements. The dis- 
position of men must be changed. Their motive life must be 



24 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

influenced. The springs of conduct must be touched. Right ideals 
must be implanted. A new spirit must be imparted. All this is 
only tantamount to saying we must bring to bear on all men in- 
dividually and upon all their relationships the influence of the hfe 
and spirit as well as principles of Jesus Christ the source of super- 
human life and energy. 

The present world situation is unprecedented not only in oppor- 
tunity and danger, but also in urgency. From the point of view 
of the Christian Church the present moment is incomparably the 
most critical and urgent she has ever known. This is true because 
so many nations just now are in a plastic condition but soon to 
become fixed or set like plaster on the wall. Shall they be per- 
mitted to set in pagan or Christian molds? The answer to this 
question cannot be deferred. To delay by even a half decade 
facing the situation and acting upon it comprehensively would be 
the most serious mistake which Christian leaders in this generation 
could make. 

The present situation is far more urgent than any which the 
Church has ever known because of the rising tides of nationalism 
and racial patriotism which are surging on every hand. Wherever 
the world traveler may have gone in recent years he has become 
very conscious of the thrill of a new life. He has found nations 
being re-born; he has observed peoples coming into their own. 
This growing spirit of nationality and racial patriotism can no 
more be resisted than can the tides of the sea. If Christians identify 
themselves with these rising national and racial aspirations, the 
progress of Christianity throughout the world will be greatly facili- 
tated ; if they do not, the mission of the Christian religion will be 
indefinitely retarded. 

The startlingly rapid spread of the corrupt influences in our so- 
called Western civilization among the non-Christian peoples con- 
stitute another reason for prompt and urgent action on the part 
of the Christian Church. The cheek of the visitor from a Chris- 
tian land blushes with shame as he sees in the port cities of Asia, 
Africa and Latin America the startling prevalence of evils which 
have spread from his native land. Some of these evils are eating 
like gangrene into the less highly organized races of mankind. 
Christianity has a double responsibility. It must counteract these 
evil influences wherever they have extended and it must preempt 
those regions of the world to which these deadly influences have 
not yet reached. Nothing but the power of the Living Christ can 
arrest and turn back these tides of death. 

The present situation is much more urgent than any which has 
characterized preceding generations because of the cancerous 
growths of the non-Christian civilizations which are eating with 
such directness and deadliness toward the very vitals of Christen- 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 25 

dom. We cannot trifle with cancers nor can we safely ignore them. 
Now that the world has found itself in its unity as one body (and 
this is the first half generation in which this could be said), it can 
no longer be a matter of indifference to one part of the world body 
what happens in any other part. If there be a plague spot in 
China or Turkey or Africa, sooner or later it must affect America 
and England. It would seem that even though a man were not a 
Christian he would believe in foreign missions, that is, in the 
spread of the knowledge and vitality of the Christian religion, 
solely on grounds of patriotism. It is difficult to understand the 
patriotism of the citizen in these days which does not regard with 
responsive sympathy every wise effort to release in the centers of 
contagion of the earth the life-giving power of Christianity. 

There is another dangerous process which greatly accentuates 
the urgency of the present situation — the process of syncretism. 
This would seek to combine certain good ideas of the Christian re- 
ligion with certain other good ideas of non-Christian systems of 
religion or ethics but would leave out the superhuman aspects of 
Christianity which is tantamount to leaving out Christianity itself. 
Those dangers growing out of eclecticism are in some respects more 
difficult to counteract and overcome than are the non-Christian 
religions themselves. Its confusing, unsettling and paralyzing in- 
fluence is felt not only in the East but also in the West. It can 
be met only by bringing to bear a larger number of the strongest 
and best equipped minds of our generation. 

The present situation is immeasurably more urgent than that 
of other days because of the recent unparalleled triumphs of Chris- 
tianity. It is a remarkable fact that the most extensive victories 
of Christian missions have been those of the recent past. Not 
even in the early days of Christianity were such striking results 
achieved as have accompanied the efforts of Christian missions in 
Asia and Africa during the last decade. It is a still more remark- 
able fact that these victories have been achieved not only in the 
more favored parts of the world where the forces and influences 
of the Christian religion are most concentrated, but on some of 
the most difficult battlefields of the Church. Unquestionably it is 
a time of rising spiritual tide. It is always wise to take advantage 
of a rising tide. More can be accomplished in a short time under 
such circumstances than in long, weary, discouraging periods of 
effort while the tide is falling. God seems to have done a hundred 
years' work within the past five years. The Christians of the 
West must quicken their pace. The discerning traveller returning 
from journeys in the Eastern world to-day must be constrained to 
confess solicitude, not lest the peoples of the East will fail to 
receive Christ, but lest the Christians of the West lose Christ as 
a result of not passing on the knowledge of Him. The Christians 



26 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

now living in Western lands should have a realizing sense that 
this present, unparalleled world situation affords not only the great- 
est opportunity the Church has ever known, but so far as they are 
concerned, their best if not their only opportunity. 

" The work which centuries might have done 
Must crowd the hour of setting sun." 



THE BASIS OF RACE PROGRESS IN THE SOUTH 

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, 

Tuskegee, Ala., 

Principal of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. 

Our race and the whole South is under the deepest debt of grati- 
tude to Dr. Mott and others for bringing about the meeting of the 
Negro Christian Student Conference in the city of Atlanta. 

The whole world is looking to the United States to set the 
example in the solution of racial problems so far as concerns the 
relationship between black man and white man. There is scarcely 
a country in Europe that in some way is not concerned with the 
destiny of black, brown or yellow people. This is especially true 
regarding black races in Africa. These European countries are 
studying our policy toward black people in the United States, and 
what is done here in a very large degree is likely to influence the 
treatment of our race throughout the world. 

I am glad to see gathered here such a large representation from 
the various colored institutions of learning in the South, and I 
am also glad to see here such a creditable representation of white 
people who are interested in the education of our people. It is 
a matter of the greatest encouragement that within fifty years 
after the freedom of our race, we cannot only bring together these 
black students and black professors, but here in the same city we 
have some of the best representatives of the white race from the 
South and from the North. 

To the young men and women from the various institutions of 
learning for my race I want to say especially, that we should have 
faith in the future of our race. It is hardly possible for you to 
become leaders and guides for the race except as you have faith 
in the future possibilities of the race; faith to believe that we can 
succeed in working out our destiny right here in the South. 

Equally important is it that we should have faith in the sense of 
justice and fair-play of the white man by whose side we live. It 
has been my privilege to come into contact with white people in 
many parts of the world, but I have no hesitation in saying that 



\ 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 27 

if the duty of converting a white man from wrong ways of think- 
ing to right ways of thinking is placed upon me, I would rather 
choose the Southern white man upon which to exercise my influ- 
ence than any other white man I have ever met. 

The time has come when through such representative gatherings 
as this we should use our influence to impress upon our people 
everywhere that we must apply the teachings of the Bible to doing 
our duty toward the white man in our neighborhood. We must 
apply the teachings of the Bible in helping our people to exercise 
patience. Often when facing difficulties and injustice they are 
inclined to become impatient. We cannot expect all the changes 
that we so much desire to take place within a short period of time. 
Changes which concern millions of people who cover millions of 
acres of territory do not take place speedily or without hard, 
patient effort. 

In applying the teachings of the Bible in helping us do our duty 
toward the white man, we should not overlook the fact that the 
white man has prejudices to overcome. There are many white 
people throughout the country who have in many ways imbibed 
the feeling that it was not wise to educate colored people. This 
prejudice or feeling cannot be gotten rid of within a day. I sus- 
pect that it has required quite an effort for some of the white 
people who are here to-day to bring themselves to the point where 
they could come and commune with us. 

I want the representatives at this gathering to use their influence 
in helping the white man in their own communities to get acquainted 
with the highest and best life of our race. Many white people in 
the South do not know the Negro as they should. They come into 
contact with the criminal, loafing, gambling Negro, and too often 
they get the impression that there is no other class of Negroes. 
Every one of us should make ourselves a missionary in the direc- 
tion of bringing white people into contact with the business progress 
of our people ; into contact with what they are doing in our schools, 
colleges and industrial institutions ; into contact with our church 
and religious life. 

Those present at this conference should use their influence, too, 
in helping the growing generations of our men and women to cul- 
tivate a spirit of modesty. It does not help a race to have the 
feeling created that in proportion as the young men and women 
get education they become self-conceited, overbearing and carry 
a chip on their shoulder. Through modesty and sincere service 
we must convince every white man with whom we come into con- 
tact that education does not spoil us but makes us better and more 
useful citizens; in a word, we must convince every white man that 



\ 



28 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

we touch that we have learned to apply the teachings of the Bible 
in the practical, daily affairs of life. We must be ready and will- 
ing to go out of our way to serve somebody else. 

We must teach our people everywhere that we are going to gain 
more through Christian service than by making demands. In the 
last analysis, with us as with all races, service is the badge of 
sovereignty. 

We should use the teachings of the Bible in letting the white 
man everywhere know in a frank, respectful, courteous way our 
feelings toward the accommodations afforded us for travel in the 
public carriers. 

In many cases on the railroads of the South the Negro is treated 
very injustly, because while he pays the same fare in many cases 
the accommodations in the restaurants and railroad stations and 
in the cars are far from being in any degree equal to the same 
accommodations furnished the white people who pay no more fare 
than the Negro does. In all these matters we must use our Chris- 
tian spirit in talking not about the white man but talking to him 
and letting him know our feelings and our wishes ; and my experi- 
ence has been that in proportion as we are frank and direct in let- 
ting the white man know what our condition and needs are in 
reference to public travel that he is likely to respond by bettering 
these conditions. 

We should convince the white man, too, that a little praise goes 
further than much abuse ; that it is unfair for newspapers to spread 
before the country a description of every little crime that takes 
place among us, and withhold from the public evidences of real 
progress. I believe the time has come when white people are tired 
and sick of reading about every fight or stealing or pistol carrying 
that takes place among the colored people. In proportion as the 
Negro is praised for good conduct he feels that industrious, moral 
and religious living is worth while. 

• ••••>•••* 

The leaders of our people should go out from this Conference 
with a determination to get rid of idleness and crime among our 
people. The fact is there is too much crime among the Negroes ^ 
both in the North and in the South. An investigation will show 
that in proportion to population there is a much larger percentage 
of colored people arrested and convicted of crime in the North 
than is true in the South. 

We should use our influence in convincing the Southern white 
man that we are not seeking to intermingle socially with any other 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 29 

race, nor are we seeking political domination, but we are seeking 
justice and to be of service. 

The white man has a double responsibility resting upon him. 
The responsibility to save his own race, and the responsibility to 
see to it that in every community the white man sets such an 
example before the Negro as will help him and not hinder him. 
Go into any community where the white man is living on a low j 
moral level, drinking, gambling and breaking the law, and you [ 
will find the colored people in a very large degree patterning their 
lives after the white man. On the other hand, go into any com- 
munity and find the white people intelligent, law-abiding and de- 
voted to high living, and you will find the Negro partaking very 
much of the same kind of life. If the Negro is brought into con- 
tact with a high type of Christian white people the Negro is helped. 
If he is brought into contact with a low type of immoral, unchris- 
tian white people, the Negro is injured. 

It should be the duty and the privilege of every progressive, 
intelligent young colored man present or absent to warn our peo- 
ple against cultivating a spirit of racial hatred. No greater mis- 
fortune could overtake the present growing generation than for ! 
them to have engendered in their minds from year to year a feeling 
of dislike against any race. Let us everywhere cultivate a spirit of 
love or mutual forbearance rather than a spirit of hatred and racial 
strife. 

The white people throughout this country should realize that it 
is not necessary to keep the Negro ignorant in order that the white 
man may appear wise. It is not necessary to keep the Negro in 
poverty in order that the white man may appear prosperous. It 
is not necessary to keep the Negro in misery in order that some 
other man may appear happy. Both races should go forward 
toward a higher and more complete Christian civilization together, 
and here in behalf of my race I pledge to Dr. Mott and the other 
leaders in this great world-wide Christian Student movement the 
hearty cooperation of every element of my people in spreading 
Christianity throughout the world. 

THE CHALLENGE OF FAITH 

EGBERT W. SMITH, D.D., 

Nashville, Tenn., Executive Secretary of the Committee on Foreign Missions, 
Presbyterian Church in the United States. 

There are few greater words in the English language than the 
word achievement. To do, to dare, to accomplish something that 
will push forward the kingdom of Christ and leave the world bet- 
ter and happier for our having lived in it, is the ambition that 
should guide and glorify every human life. Black were the shad- 
ows that fell about the Saviour's last night on earth, but in the 



30 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

rapture of achievement they were forgotten, as He shouted up 
to His Father, " I have finished the work that Thou gavest Me to 
do." 

What is the secret of worthy achievement, the pathway that leads 
to the shining goal? Is it wealth? Is it social position? Is it 
leadership? Is it genius? Multitudes have had all these and have 
failed, while other multitudes with none of them have royally suc- 
ceeded. Let us ask the Bible. We need not search through it, 
for the Spirit of inspiration has summed it up for us in one great 
chapter, the eleventh of Hebrews. In this chapter God places the 
inspired writer upon a mountain peak, and bids him look back 
along all the past and report how worthy things have been accom- 
plished. From his mountain top with the unerring eye of inspi- 
ration he follows the track of the centuries away back to where 
the years blend in a solemn stillness, and he reports that every 
noble achievement has been wrought by faith. By faith Abel, by 
faith Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Sarah, by 
faith Isaac, by faith Jacob, by faith Joseph, by faith Moses, 
by faith Rahab, and so on, to the end. 

To this teaching of Scripture the Son of God sets His seal. 
" According to your faith," He says, " be it unto you." Not ac- 
cording to your wealth, or rank, or genius, but " according to your 
faith." When the father of the afflicted child said to Him, " If 
thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us," 
Christ's reply was, " If thou canst have faith ; all things are pos- 
sible to him that hath faith." Again He said, " Verily I say unto 
you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall be able 
to move mountains, and nothing shall be impossible to you." If 
Christ and the Bible teach anything, they teach that the master- 
word of achievement is faith. 

What is faith? When we bring together all that the Bible says 
by way of explaining and illustrating faith, we are led to the fol- 
lowing definition: Faith is courage to go forward in the path of 
obedience (not of fancy, or fanaticism, or self-will), doing our 
best with what we have, and trusting God to back our best with 
His almighty power. 

Faith is courage to go forward. The Bible, every page of it, 
is God's answer to the cowardly doctrine that we are the creatures 
of circumstances, the helpless victims of our environment. We 
must go with the current. We must do as others do. We are 
hopelessly shut in to a narrow, feeble life. But the Bible says, 
No. You are not the victim of your surroundings. Through 
God's offered help you can overcome them if you will. And it 
points us to Enoch, and Noah, and Joseph, and Daniel, and a score 
more, each one of them alone amidst evil, and yet victorious over 
evil. 

The Bible is continually inviting us, no matter what our environ- 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 31 

ment may be, to do and dare; and history backs the invitation with 
ten thousand examples. 

The man who a century ago waked the Church of God to its 
duty to a heathen world, — who was he ? An humble shoe-maker, 
poor in this world's goods, opposed and ridiculed by the great 
churchmen of his day. But he saw the work to be done. He 
went bravely forward trusting in God. And God's strength was 
made perfect in William Carey's weakness. 

God often delights to use what to our eyes would seem the most 
unlikely of instruments. The man who proved himself the earthly 
savior of the poor lunatics of this country, — who was he? " He " 
was a woman, a woman who went in person through the loathsome, 
disease-infected prisons and poor-houses of the United States, 
where the poor lunatics, there being no asylums, were caged and 
chained like wild beasts, herded and beaten and starved as crim- 
inals. Cage after cage of raving madmen, whose keepers told her 
it was death to approach, she entered, clad only in the armor of 
love, to study their condition, and to prove upon them the effect 
of gentleness and sympathy. Then she went in person before many 
legislatures, reporting the results of her investigations, pleading 
for separate detention and scientific and gentle treatment for the 
mentally diseased ; and with such success that noble asylums sprang 
up all over the country in the wake of her footsteps. Before her 
death Dorothea Dix had done more for this neglected and suffer- 
ing portion of our population than any other person that ever lived. 
She saw the awful need. Trusting in God, she went forward to 
meet it. And God's strength was made perfect in her weakness. 

Faith is courage to go forward in the path of duty, doing our 
best with what we have, and trusting God to back our best with 
His almighty power. 

" Doing our best with what we have." A fatal word in the 
English language is the word " if." " I would accomplish great 
things in the world, if — " H I had better opportunities, or if I 
had a better education, or if I had a brighter mind, or if I had more 
money, or if I had a good opening, or if something else. How 
many potentially great careers have been coffined in this little word 
of but two letters, God only knows. No more colossal achieve- 
ment than that of Moses was ever performed by man. Yet it is 
startling how near Moses came to missing his whole career through 
the influence of that little word. When God called him to the 
rescue of the oppressed Israelites, he replied with a string of " ifs," 
just as you and I are always tempted to do in presence of a great 
and challenging task. The first was, " If I were a great man, I 
might undertake it " ; the second, " If I had the necessary knowl- 
edge " ; the third, " If I were an eloquent speaker " ; the fourth, 
" If I had any chance of success." 

Into the doleful procession of these " ifs " God injects a sudden 



32 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

question. " What is that in thine hand?" Moses had been think- 
ing of what he lacked, God wants him to think of what he has. 
"What is that in thine hand?" Nothing but a rod, a common 
stick which he had cut on the Arabian hillside to shepherd and 
defend his sheep. Yet it was with that rod that Moses brought 
the ten plagues upon Egypt, split the Red Sea in two, brought 
water out of the rock, and delivered his people. 

There was Shamgar. " O Lord," he cried, " these Philistines 
are overrunning my country. I would drive them out, but I have 
no weapon." Said the Lord, "What is that in thine hand?" 
" Only an ox-goad, for prodding oxen." Said the Lord, " Use 
what you have." With that ox-goad he deals death among the 
Philistines and drives them panic-stricken across the border. 

I hear David saying, " Lord, I want to overcome this giant, but 
I have no military training; I have no experience with sword or 
with armor." Said the Lord, "What have you?" "Only my 
shepherd's sling." " Use what you have." So I see David, sling 
in hand, running across the brook to meet Goliath, and shouting to 
him, " This day will the Lord deliver you into my hand." 

This is the faith that Christ, when on earth, was ever seeking to 
develop in men's hearts. You remember how in the synagogue one 
Sabbath day He saw a man with a withered hand. Said He, 
" Stand forth in the midst." Then comes the command, " Stretch 
forth thine hand." Suppose the man had replied, " Lord, to do 
this, two things are necessary, will power and muscle power. But 
my muscle power is dried up, atrophied. To obey your command 
is therefore impossible." Had he said this, he would have carried 
a withered hand to his grave. But the man argued thus : " To 
stretch out my hand requires will power and muscle power. I 
have one of the two ; and since He has commanded me, I will make 
the effort. I will obey with the power I have and trust Him to 
supply what is lacking." That is the faith that Christ gloriously 
rewarded then, and always rewards. 

Look at another one of the great Teacher's lessons in faith. 
Here are five thousand hungry men, besides hungry women and 
children, making probably ten thousand in all. Says the Saviour, 
" Give ye them to eat." " Impossible ! " cries Philip. " To feed 
this vast multitude would require fifty dollars worth of bread, and 
even that would give them but a morsel apiece." Says the Saviour, 
" What have you ? " " Only five loaves and two small fishes, but 
what are they among so many ? " But the Saviour has them start 
with that. He divides it among twelve so that each has about half 
a loaf and a little piece of fish, and with this he is to feed his 
section of some eight hundred people sitting on the grass. But 
they have the courage to start with the little the Lord has given 
them, and as they use that, it grows, and grows, and grows, till all 
are fed. 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 33 

I hear some one saying, " If my powers and opportunities could 
be multiplied in that way, I could accomplish great things." As 
a matter of fact, that is precisely the way Christ does multiply 
them in answer to faith. He spoke two parables to teach us this, 
that of the Talents and that of the Pounds. Each parable He 
closed with these words, " For to him that hath," that is, as the 
context shows, that uses what he hath, "shall be given, and he 
shall have abundance." Here is a man with two talents. He says, 
" Lord, I want to do a four-talent work in the world, and I have 
only two talents." Says the Lord, " Start with what you have." 
Presently the two talents become four talents. Another comes say- 
ing, " Lord, I want to do a ten-talent work, and I have but five 
talents." To him also the command is given, " Start with what you 
have." The five talents grow into ten. 

In the parable of the Pounds, one of the men says, " Lord, I 
have but one pound, and I want to do a ten-pound work for the 
coming of the Kingdom." When the Saviour tells him to start 
with his one little pound, he does not hesitate. He goes forward in 
the path of obedience, doing his best with what he has, and trust- 
ing God to back his best with His almighty power. And what fol- 
lows? The one pound becomes two, three, four, six, eight, ten 
pounds. " For," says the Saviour, " To him that useth what he 
hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance ; but from him that 
will not use what he hath shall be taken away even that which he 
hath." 

In the life of Dwight L. Moody, by his son, there is one sentence 
that ought to be memorized by every young man and woman in 
Christendom. One of young Moody's critics had told him that 
he ought to realize his limitations and not attempt to speak in 
public. "You make too many mistakes in grammar," he com- 
plained. Replied Moody, " I know I make mistakes, and I lack 
a great many things, but I'm doing the best I can zvith zvhat I've 
got." There lies the much sought after " secret " of D. L. Moody, 
and of every other man or woman who has turned one pound into 
ten and ten into a hundred. 

Thus God is ever teaching us by His Word and His Providence 
that not one of us, however situated, has any valid excuse for not 
laying hold of some noble work for the glory of God and the good 
of men. I do not know what your work should be, but by prayer 
and earnest study you ought to be able to find it. Thoughtless 
people sometimes speak contemptuously of what they term " youth- 
ful enthusiasms." Never was contempt so misapplied. History 
proves that nearly every great reform that has blessed mankind, 
nearly every forward movement of the kingdom of truth and 
righteousness, has begun as an enthusiasm in the breast of some 
young man or young woman. 

Do not look too high or too far away for a place to start. How 



34 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

did Christ begin? The Bible calls Him the Captain of our faith. 
He is our leader in the divine art and exercise of faith. How 
then did He begin His work? With schools and colleges and uni- 
versities and seminaries? With an army of home and foreign 
missionaries? No. He began with a few humble men and women 
in reach of His hand, to revolutionize the world. The path of 
noble achievement does not start in the sky above your head, or at 
the golden gateway of the sunset, or 

" From some fair dawn beyond the doors of death." 

It begins right where you are, with the gifts, the opportunities, the 
tools in reach of your hand, and from that point it moves onward 
and upward to ever-enlarging power and fruitfulness. 

Why do not more of us enter this path of noble and telling 
achievement? Because we do not trust God to back our best with 
His almighty power. We see the needs, social, spiritual, economic, 
political, the crying needs at home and abroad. But we see even 
more clearly the difficulties in the way and our own weaknesses. 
What we do not look at is the promised help of Almighty God. 
What we do not listen to is the voice of Him who says, " Fear 
thou not, for I am with thee ; be not dismayed, for I am thy God ; 
I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold 
thee with the right hand of my righteousness. For I, the Lord 
thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee. Fear not; I 
will help thee." 



CHRISTIANITY AS A BASIS OF COMMON CITIZENSHIP 

PROF. WILLIAM PICKENS, 
Talladega, Ala., Talladega College. 

" Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad " — That 
is the method of inferior " gods " and devils. But whom the true 
God loves and whom He would make great. He challenges, He tries, 
He tests. He proves. The Negro race in America is God's high 
challenge and supreme test of American Christian democracy. Will 
it accept the challenge? Can it stand the test? 

There are other tests which America has met and is meeting, but 
this is the supreme test. The question is not whether we can 
receive from foreign lands multitudes, who are of the same race 
and color as ninety per cent, of our American population, and 
assimilate them to our civilization, — but here is a people who are 
a part of America's own history, speaking her language and know- 
ing only her institutions, differing merely in race and color, and 
the question is, Can American Christianity and democracy cross 
this imaginary line, or is it easier to cross the ocean? Will the 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 35 

American religion be exclusive like Judaism, but without having 
as good reasons for its exclusiveness ? Judaism could justify 
its narrowness on the deep grounds of national history and self- 
defense. The best test of American Christianity is not whether 
we can send the most missionaries, count the most converts and 
spend the most money in India, China and Japan or even Africa, 
but what can we do and what are we doing for ten million Negroes 
in America. It is not whether we can preach brotherhood to all 
the world, but whether we can practice brotherhood in our neigh- 
borhood. 

With neither hope nor intention of detracting from the glory 
and goodness of foreign missionary work, we say that the spirit of 
the Founder of Christianity is opposed to a sentiment which makes 
it easier to practice Christian brotherhood through the collection 
box, the mails and the missionary magazines than to practice the 
same across the street and over a neighbor's fence. The meek 
but fearless Jesus of Nazareth would have called such inconsistency 
the ne plus ultra of Pharisaism. The principles of Christianity 
are preeminently suited to a solution of our domestic problems. Its 
teaching is necessarily democratic ; it was founded by a democrat. 
Whatever the outward government of the community, its Chris- 
tianity must be a democracy, — a democracy of souls. It is a 
radical doctrine, and compromises are conspicuously absent from 
its fundamental teachings : Love thy neighbor as thyself — Love 
your enemies — The gain of the whole world will not compensate 
the loss of a soul — All nations are of one blood — and in that 
sheet which Peter saw let down from heaven there were not only 
beasts and birds, but toads and snakes. 

Such is the doctrine that has proved to be of greater vitality 
than any other in the history of human nature. For nearly two 
thousand years it has met no condition or phase of society where it 
proved to be inapplicable. It includes Jew and Gentile, Greek and 
barbarian ; it began in the lowest ranks of society but has long ago 
reached the highest. What will this simple doctrine mean if ap- 
plied to American race conditions without adulteration? Let us 
consider its application: in Industry, in Politics, in the Church, and 
in our social relations generally. 

There is need of a higher ideal of Christian brotherhood in the 
industrial forces of this country, not only as between employer and 
employed, but also between different groups of the employed, and 
especially between different race groups. In all industrial pursuits 
race lines should be obliterated. How can one laborer consistently 
or safely deny to another the right to earn his bread in the sweat 
of his face? Labor unions should be principled not on social 
equality, but on the equality of labor. Christianity is utterly op- 
posed to denying the black man the right to work in any sphere 
or calling for which he is individually fit: for if colored folk are 



36 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

brothers in Christ, why are they not also brothers in the machine- 
shop and the factory? Besides, it is against the interests of the 
labor unions themselves to exclude the Negro: if there is any need 
for the union of labor, there is the same need for the union of all 
labor, white and black. When the black man is excluded he is 
made a strike-breaker and wage-reducer; he is forced into war 
upon organized labor, and the fact that this war is marked by the 
color line causes discord to grow between the races. Some shrewd 
and unscrupulous employers will foster race dissension in the 
laboring forces, and thus keep all labor as near as possible to 
starvation wages by the strategy of " divide and conquer." But 
the Christian religion, which was founded by a laborer and origi- 
nated among the common people, should be the means of bringing 
the industrial elements of the two races into closer fellowship 
and cooperation. 

Christianity is opposed to any effort to restrict colored people to 
any certain sphere of employment, be that sphere high or low. Not 
all Negroes are fit to be lawyers, and not all Negroes are fit to be 
farmers. The Negro race has a varied genius, especially in Amer- 
ica, and it is uneconomic and wasteful of human energies to attempt 
to force any race into any limited number of occupations. The 
only sensible reason for engaging in any line of work is individual 
fitness. For the useful activities known to mankind color neither 
fits nor unfits. The color line in work is not natural and the race 
test is artificial ; and segregation on this artificial line, rather than on 
the natural basis of individual fitness, not only wastes human energy 
by keeping men out of activities for which they are naturally fit, 
but, as in the case of the exclusive labor union, it sows the seeds 
of discord and postpones the day of race adjustment. And be- 
sides all this argument on the lower plane of industrial and eco- 
nomic welfare, we can say in a higher plane that Christ recog- 
nized the value and the rights of the individual, so that the whole 
circumscription, restriction and segregation idea is most cruelly 
un-Christian. 

And now we come to politics. We are not talking about dema- 
gogism and petty trickery, but politics in the noblest sense of that 
honorable word. There are those who admit or concede that the 
Negro should have the privileges of work: that he should be allowed 
to labor in any industrial and some professional lines, to receive 
equal pay for equal work and to accumulate property to any amount, 
— and still they say that he should not take part in politics. This 
position is inconsistent and impossible: there can be no secure 
democracy in industry alongside of oligarchy and repression in 
government ; — the right of property is not safe when the right of 
self-government is denied. Is it not the purpose of votes to de- 
fend and advance the interests of those who vote? Can it be that 
people who would deny a man the means of self-defense and ad- 
vancement would still be willing that he should be defended and 



< 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 37 

advanced? But, they say consolingly, with the privilege of work 
and the accumulation of wealth the political rights will come. Will 
they ? Do rights ever " come," or must they be gone after and 
repeatedly gone after until they are got? 

But when we speak of the Negro and politics there are some 
who always speak of reconstruction days ; they talk fifty years 
behind the times, — as if the inevitable condition of the Negro of 
fifty years ago were proof against the Negro of to-day, — as if 
the consequences of ignorance were an argument against undeniable 
intelligence. Does such a man not know that the Negro's con- 
dition has changed in fifty years, and that if he could even prove 
that the race should not have been enfranchised fifty years ago, 
the proof would have little bearing on the question of to-day? 

Any attempt to exclude the Negro from politics and equality of 
citizenship could be defended only on some such assumptions as 
these: that the white race is so highly developed morally and 
spiritually that it can justly take absolute and unchecked control 
of another people, and that the Negro if admitted to self-govern- 
ment would make it worse for himself and others. But, indeed, 
the Anglo-Saxon race, which is somewhat new in the walks of 
civilization, has nowhere shown such superhuman capacity for 
self-control as is implied in the first assumption. The second as- 
sumption is rendered unnecessary by the fact that the Negro can 
be admitted under fair, just and equal tests for his qualification. 
The tests should apply, not to the conditions of a previous gener- 
ation, but to the attainments of the present generation, — to the 
man who wants to vote and not to his grandfather. As to the 
severity of the test the Negro has no specification ; whatever edu- 
cational or other attainable qualification the white race may feel 
able to require of itself, the Negro will not murmur if the same, 
no more nor less, is required of him. 

And we come now to the Church itself. And by Church here 
we mean everything there is to it : spiritual body, membership, 
organization, and whatever else the term may connote. If the 
Negro is to be counted as an equal in anything with which Chris- 
tian people have to do, surely that equality should begin in the 
Christian Church. But we find church leaders, some of eminence 
and influence, trying to twist the simple and straightforward gospel 
of Jesus Christ to the support of color-prejudice and race injustice. 
There is nothing in any religion that is clearer than the attitude 
of Jesus Christ on the relation of His church to all men and the 
non-exclusiveness of its principles and privileges. The true Chris- 
tian Church is the best authorized and the most inclusive democracy 
in the world. If the Church believes in itself it must believe in the 
black man in this country, for there is no possible interpretation 
of the teaching of Christ which would exclude the American Negro 
or any other race. 

The Christian Church, which lays so much stress on the value 



38 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

and importance of the soul and relatively so minimizes the impor- 
tance of every other thing, can have but one consistent attitude on 
the question of the degradation, segregation and " jim-crowing " 
of colored Christians. 

And now we come to the phase of the question in which men 
usually deliberate with their prejudices and decide with their pas- 
sions. But we believe that even this matter is amenable to reason 
and commonsense and to the principles of Christianity. Some 
say : We know that the Negro must work and that he should be 
secure in his property ; that it is inconsistent and perhaps even 
dangerous to our own liberties to attempt to exclude him from the 
democracy ; and that without him the Church cannot really follow 
Jesus Christ; but, they conclude, we imagine and fear that the ad- 
vance of the Negro threatens race integrity. Let us look this 
matter squarely in the face. We ask this question : Whatever 
may be the correct position in that matter, will not two educated, 
elevated. Christianized and mutually respectful races be better able 
and more likely to assume that correct position than two degraded, 
un-Christian and mutually hateful groups? If the Negro is civil- 
ized and Christianized he can be all the more readily brought to 
understand and agree to his proper relation to the white race, 
whatever that may be. To take the opposite view is to indict 
civilization and Christianity. 

If for no other reason, the white man can have a wise self- 
interest in the advancement of the Negro because the Negro is a 
part of the white man's environment and will help to make the 
white man whatever he is to become: the better the environment, 
the better its influence. The white race can never be strong and in- 
telligent in the midst of a weak and ignorant race. God never 
intended that a man should get entirely free from the character of 
his neighbors : he must always be in part at least what his neigh- 
bors are. If we are surrounded by weak and ignorant neighbors 
we are constantly tempted to cheat and oppress them ; sometimes 
we yield and sink. The most helpful environment that a strong 
man can have is to be surrounded by other strong men whom he 
can neither cheat nor wrong. The race is as the man. 

The bases of cooperation are these: identity of interest, mutual 
understanding, mutual respect and mutual trust. As to identity 
of interest, — God never bound two races more firmly to the same 
destiny than the white and black people of this country: we are all 
in the same boat, and when we land we are all going to land to- 
gether, however much we may delay the journey by mutual bicker- 
ing and useless hostilities. And there must be mutual understand- 
ing: naturally misunderstanding destroys cooperation, and the failure 
of cooperation begets new misunderstandings, so that our mutual 
troubles chase each other in a never-ending, self-perpetuating cycle. 
When two differing parties come thoroughly to understand each 



.•< 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 39 

other, in that moment do half of their differences dissolve, or rather 
are found to be non-existent and imaginary. To know each other 
we must cross the line, — or come near enough to it to shake hands 
and talk. And mutual respect will increase with mutual under- 
standing: we cannot be just to a man whom we do not respect, for 
he will not let us, — he will resent disrespect and that will embitter 
us. But mutual trust, like a well-nurtured plant, will grow out of 
understanding and respect, — and on trust will blossom the flower 
of Peace ! 

But, think some, that means equality. Exactly ! Equality in the 
truest and noblest sense of the word. The equality of manhood 
does not mean that you are as tall as I am, that you weigh as 
much, that you have as good health or that you can commit a dozen 
lines of Homer's Iliad as quickly. All men, as individuals, are 
unequal in those respects. But it means that you are as free to do 
what you can do as I am to do what I can do, and that we are 
equally accountable to the laws of man and the laws of God. There 
is no other equality worth the mention. This is the foundation 
of real friendship and lasting peace, and on such basis we can 
cooperate. 

But perfect understanding, sound respect, mutual trust and ideal 
cooperation are largely a matter of growth. In the meanwhile, 
what is our duty to each other ? The Negro of brains and character 
must not only feel responsible for his individual conduct, but an 
interest amounting almost to a sense of responsibility for the rest 
of his race. It is not enough for him to say simply that he does 
not condone the criminals of his race and to abjure responsibility 
for their conduct : he must show an active interest in their reforma- 
tion. For, whether or not as a matter of right, they do as a matter 
of fact affect him. It is God's way of keeping us interested in the 
lower element, by weaving our destiny with theirs. On the other 
hand, it is not enough for the enlightened and conscientious white 
man to say, when others kill or degrade or plunder the Negro, that 
" they do not represent the best white South." The worst white 
South will help to make destiny for the best, for before God we are 
all responsible to the utmost of our ability. 

Finallv we aver our faith in the Christian religion and its fitness 
to bring these two races into a right and peaceful relationship. 
Christianity has met and overcome hard things in its history: the 
corruption of empires, the stubbornness of superstition and the 
night of heathendom. It has brought truer freedom and stabler 
self-government than the world has ever known before. It has 
made slavery an outcast in civilized society, federated the peoples 
of the great nations into a brotherhood more binding than treaties, 
and promises to make the ancient seat of the god of war a throne 
of the Prince of Peace. It is my faith and the faith of my buoyant 
race that this most vital of all reforming and informing forces will 



40 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

ultimately help us, white and black, in this country, to lay aside 
the sin of prejudice that doth so easily and so sorely beset us and 
run with courage and endurance the race of civilization which God 
has set before us. 



THE CHURCH IN RELATION TO GROWING RACE 

PRIDE 

C. V. ROMAN, M.D., 

Nashville, Tenn., Editor Journal of the National Medical Association, for- 
mer President of the National Medical Association. 

INTRODUCTION 

Before reading my paper I wish to make some remarks by way 
of introduction to my subject and summary of my argument. 

1. The principles of ethics and Christianity are eternal, but 
human society is evolving and every now and then a restatement 
of these principles becomes necessary. Such a period is now upon 
us. 

2. The keynote of the Twentietn Century interpretation of Chris- 
tian Ethics will be universality. 

3. To take part in this we must think as men — just plain men 
without any adjectives. Of course I use man in the generic sense — 
Every woman is a man, but God pity the man that is a woman ! — 
It is a great thing to be free from adjectives and be just a plain 
man. Who ever heard of Mr. Shakespeare or General Caesar or 
Professor Moses? It is particularly difficult for a colored man 
to be a man with no descriptive titles. Why, they even put adjec- 
tives to our names in the city directories. I don't like it. I want 
to be just a plain man without any trimmings whatever. 

That this feeling is not peculiar to me I proved by an experi- 
ment. I received a letter giving my correct address in every detail, 
even to my full name and title. Yet the writer added an adjec- 
tive thus, 

Dr. Chas. Victor Roman, Colored. 

That exact name and address could not be duplicated in the 
United States and I owned the property indicated by the street 
number. Why this adjective? I was offended. Then I began to 
think maybe I was too sensitive and I decided to test it. I answered 
the letter politely and favorably and addressed it to 

" Mr. Patrick O'Leary, Irish." 

He came around to fight me. This I avoided by diplomacy. 
" Oh," said I innocently, at the same time producing his letter to 
me, " I thought you regarded a man's race as a part of his address." 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 4I 

He saw the point and laughed, promising never to be guilty again. 

My friends, keep away from adjectives. Strive to be men. 

4. Be not discouraged by opposition. An illustration may help 
you. Let us enter the laboratory and seek to illuminate ethnology 
by physics. 

As black contains by absorption all the colors of the rainbow, 
though it does not reflect them; so the Negro has in him all the 
elements of civilization and may yet reflect them as brilliantly as 
any of the sons of man. It is a beautiful metaphor that likens 
civilization to light. " The light of civilization " is a phrase as 
suggestive as beautiful. So let us study the action of light closely. 
If all the light falling upon an object pass through it, the object 
is transparent and invisible. Imperfect transparency indicates the 
reflection or absorption of some of the incident rays. Color arises 
the same way. If all the rays are reflected the object is opaque 
and white; if all the rays are absorbed the object is opaque and 
black. So really the white man has no more light than the black 
man, though he is more luminous. 

Light needs to strike against something to become manifest. 
Take a cylinder six inches long and painted black within. Have a 
hole in the side equa-distant from each end. Darken the room 
until only a single beam of light is permitted to enter. Now place 
the cylinder in the path of this beam of light in such a way that 
the beam will traverse the cavity of the cylinder. Look through 
the hole in the side, and notwithstanding the evident fact that the 
light is passing through this cavity it is completely dark. No trace 
of the light is visible. Now introduce a pencil so as to obstruct the 
pathway of the beam and a ball of light will at once appear. Ob- 
struction has made the light manifest. 

The American white man may be the necessary obstruction to 
make the Negro reflect the light of civilization. 

There is an interdependence between ethical standards and social 
relations. The ethics of master and man will not suit man and 
man. In this country, religion infused into the relation of master 
and slave enough of tenderness and sympathy to enable former 
slave and former master to bridge with a minimum of friction and 
bloodshed the chasm of war and forceful emancipation. But 
Pharaoh is dead, and Joseph is dead. The new Pharaoh knows not 
Joseph, and, worse still, the descendants of Joseph know not 
Pharaoh. 

The principles of Ethics and of Christianity are as old as human 
records; but the changes incident to progress require occasional 
re-statements of these principles. The religion of our fathers is 
seldom the religion of our sons, unless there is a re-adjustment. 
The witch burners of Salem and the Abolitionists of Boston inter- 
preted the same Bible differently. 



42 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

The Southern white man that never held slaves knows not the 
Southern black man that never was a slave. Each mistrusts the 
other; and, with a vapid stupidity that would be laughable, were 
it not so tragic, each claims thoroughly to know the other. The 
Southern Negro is just as sure that he " knows white folks," as 
the Southern white man is that he " knows niggers." 

Both are wrong. A re-adjustment of standards is necessary. 
The white man must get acquainted with the Negro who is a 
free man, not a freed man. And the Negro must learn to know a 
white man that sincerely wishes for all men to be free, — a white 
man who has never held slaves, and who has never desired to hold 
slaves. 

This is the new South that I see coming out of the Church, as 
the rapt vision of the pious revelator saw the New Jerusalem de- 
scending from a cloud. 

Moses made service a task; Paul made it a duty; Jesus made it 
a privilege. The ethics of Moses made slavery possible ; the ethics 
of Paul made slavery endurable; the ethics of Jesus 'made slavery 
impossible. 

Service as a badge of distinction is the rejected stone upon which 
the Church of the future is building. The teachings of Christ must 
finally dominate Christianity. Unselfish service is the alembic by 
which the egotism of the white man and the wakening self-con- 
sciousness of the Negro may be made to work together for the 
good of each other and the glory of our country. 

" Old time religion is good enough for me," only as it represents 
the age-long quest of the human heart for the Kingdom of God 
and His righteousness. 

Race pride is a malignant virus and human service is the anti- 
dote. A man has a right to be proud of what he does or does not 
do, but why a sane man should either boast or complain about that 
for which he is justly due neither praise nor blame passes my 
understanding. 

Racial self-respect is what we need. There is a psychology of 
races as well as of individuals, and self-respect is as necessary to 
one as to the other. The man that wishes he were somebody else, 
certainly deserves to be somebody else, — somebody with personal 
self-respect. And a race ashamed of its ethnic identity is hope- 
lessly handicapped in the battle of life. The growing racial self- 
respect of the Negro augurs well for the future. 

" I ask not from what land he came, 

Nor where his youth was nursed ; 
If pure the stream, it matters not 

The spot from whence it burst; 
The palace nor the hovel, 

Nor where his life began. — 
It is not that, but answer me, 

Is he an honest man ? " 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 43 

This is the true spirit of democracy and justice. Its acceptance 
conflicts with no law of heredity, and does not unduly exalt nurture 
over breed as a factor of civilization. 

Character is the result of heredity and environment. We are 
the joint product of nurture and breed. The Church in its deal- 
ings with the Negro should purify and strengthen the nurture and 
encourage growing racial self-respect to conserve the breed. Scien- 
tific investigation tends to show that intrinsically, one breed of men 
is as good as another; the differences arise from the incidents of 
nurture and the accidents of environment. The Negro is just as 
desirable an inhabitant of the earth as the white man. What we 
need in this country to-day, is unity of purpose rather than unity 
of blood. 

Conflict of breed has been a handicap to nurture, and the holy 
altars of religion have burned incense to prejudice and passion. 
Our theories of nurture seem in conflict with the instincts of breed. 
Our ethics and our ethnology are at cross-purposes. We preach 
equality and practice discrimination. The result is cant, hypocrisy 
and conflict. A change is necessary to avoid disaster. 

This condition has arisen from confusing things that are neces- 
sarily distinct and should be treated separately. The inalienable 
right to bread is continually confused with the privilege of breaking 
it in certain company. Sociology in the general sense has been 
confused with society in the special sense. Economics and senti- 
ment might have been purposely mixed that designing demagogues 
might profit by the confusion. The general rights of mankind 
have been bartered for the privilege of certain breeds. 

The Church ahvays loses its influence when it loses its universality. 
The appeal of religion is to the brain and heart of man. Science 
and Holy Writ unite in the declaration that man is of one blood. 
To deny this is 

"To lose a world-religion in a cult, 

And turn the stream of universal hope 

Into a desert of formality, 

And end that dream for which Messiah died ! " 

" I feel the impact of strong-surging truth 

Upon the gates of my poor utterance," 

when I think of the conflicts of creed, and the inconsistencies of 
conduct fostered by the Church. 

Perhaps when Christian teaching belittled earthly life the race 
question was not so pressing, and creed of nurture and instinct of 
breed were not so antagonistic as now ; yet. " many considerations 
strengthen the belief that in the Christian religion will be found the 
key to the problem of life. Consequently, a vital, progressive 
Christianity cannot be long out of harmony with science." Science 
teaches that civilization is for all or for none. Man must be just 
to receive justice. 



44 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

" To hold for self what others may not win 

By equal service to the common wealth, is treason." 

Race prejudice in this country is preaching ethical heresies that 
are not only wrong and unjust, hut destructive. The men that are 
declaring that no white person should be subject to the orders of 
any Negro, are striving at the same time to establish the monstrous 
doctrine that every Negro shall be subject to the orders of any 
white person. They wish to make race, not fitness, the test of 
citizenship. 

That breed shall ignore nurture and heredity neutralize acquire- 
ment is the twentieth century edition of the hoary old doctrine of 
the " Divine Right of Kings " ; a doctrine that always has, and 
always will mean confusion and conflict. King Johns and Dred 
Scott Decisions are numerous in the history of mankind, but not 
more so than Runnymedes and Gettysburgs. It is a short-sighted 
egotism that leads anyone to believe that the cosmic forces of the 
universe have concentered in his breed all the virtues of mankind. 

Man has always believed in God, but seldom believed in Man. 
We try to serve God and fight man. The twentieth-century inter- 
pretation of ethics says that this is impossible. We cannot be in- 
telligently generous without being cordially just. The brother- 
hood of man is a scientific fact and the solidarity of man is an 
Ethical Necessity. 

" If a man sav, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a 
liar." 

" This commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God 
love his brother also." 

Faith in man is the boiler by which the engine of civilization 
runs. 

Christianity must eventually accept the teachings of Christ or 
perish from the earth. 

It is as hard for a slaveholder to become reconciled to the neces- 
sary limitations of an honest freeholder as it is for a freed man to 
appreciate the responsibilities of a free man. One is on the moun- 
tain of selfishness, and the other in the valley of despair. From 
master to man is a longer road than from slave to man. To meet 
on the tablelands of justice the master must come down and the 
slave must come up. Any movement by the one arouses suspicion 
in the other. Conflict is always imminent. The Church should 
be the clearing-house of peace. She must get the Negro Christian 
to accept the white Christian as a brother in Christ without charging 
him with the tyranny of the slaveholder; and get the white Chris- 
tian to accept the Negro Christian as a brother in Christ without 
charging him with the delinquencies of the slave. Each must ac- 
cept the other at present valuation. 

The average Negro has utterly lost confidence in the white 
man's honesty and sense of justice ; and the average white man 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 45 

has no respect for Negro brains nor belief in Negro morals. The 
tragedy of it all is, that those most ignorant of the real facts, are 
the most ardent advocates of their opinions. 

Think of a United States Senator who does not know the differ- 
ence between ingenious and ingenuous, and who possibly never in 
his life had an hour's conversation with an educated Negro, — 
think of such a man being accepted as authority on Negro character 
and capability ! Yet such men have been honored with audience 
and enriched with gold, while they poisoned the waters of civiliza- 
tion by their ebullitions of bitterness and ignorance. 

The sin is national; for if one section grants them power, the 
other gives them pelf. 

There are Negroes just as mean and just as ignorant, but the 
Negro people have not yet canonized them as saints, nor hailed therm 
as prophets. 

" I know nothing which life has to offer so satisfying as the 
profound good understanding which can subsist, after much ex- 
change of good offices, between two virtuous men, each of whom 
is sure of himself and sure of his friend." 

All the great civilizations of the past have arisen in climates like 
ours. " The glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was 
Rome " are not to be compared with the splendor of Dixie when 
black men do right and white men do right in their dealings with 
each other. 

Self-interest has a power of metamorphosis. What a man at 
first advocates from policy he may later defend from principle. 
The punishment of every liar is that he eventually believes his 
own lies ; and selfishness finally construes its own aims to be for the 
general good. 

Know the truth and be free; beheve error and be bound. The 
prejudiced are always ignorant and the ignorant are never free. 

The great problem of the Church to-day is to harmonise the 
principles of ethics and the instincts of breed. Intelligence and 
justice are the bulwarks of society. The one leads men to seek 
the truth, the other teaches them to do right. John Burroughs, the 
naturalist, said truly : — 

" Our best growth is attained when we match knowledge with 
love, insight with reverence, understanding with sympathy and en- 
joyment. . . . Man Hves in his emotions, his hopes and fears, his 
loves and sympathies, his predilections and his affinities, more than 
in his reason." 

Sir Oliver Lodge says, " It is singular that there is no known 
gravitational repulsion, that it is all attraction ; that there is not a 
principle of 'levity' as well as a principle of 'gravity'! Some 
have surmised that in the course of ages all matter which repelled 
our kind has absented itself and gone into the uttermost parts of 
infinity. But surely some might have been mechanically entangled 



46 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

or entrapped for our edification. Most likely, however, no such 
general repulsion exists." 

As in physics, so in ethics. In the physical universe the most 
utter confusion would take place were repulsion to supersede at- 
traction for the fraction of a second; and man has 

" Rolled the psalm to wintry skies 

And built him fanes of fruitless prayer" 

in his mad efforts to evade justice and fair play as the only 
foundation of earthly bliss. 

The most splendid civilizations of the past have crumbled when 
prejudice has triumphed over principle. There is no escape; man 
must let his brother live or perish with him. 

Humanity has seldom been able to make conduct consistent with 
creed. Intellectual conception and physical execution are very dif- 
ferent things. I saw a man take an iron ring and throw it over a 
post ten yards distant. I understood at once. My mind fully com- 
prehended ; but five hundred trials did not enable me to put the 
ring on the post. 

At the dawn of history man knew the principles of ethics and 
the necessity of human solidarity. Yet all history furnishes no 
example of the successful application of these principles to human 
conduct. Usually creed has been better than conduct, though 
not always. Men are sometimes better than they talk. Reason is 
man's only just claim for preeminence above a beast, and yet, man 
has never been wholly reasonable. He has not yet developed the 
faith to accept, nor the strength to follow, nor the will to execute 
the conclusions of his own mind. Human ingenuity has never 
welded principle and practice into a workable union. 

" No plague that ever tainted the globe, nor war that ever devas- 
tated our planet, has, to the extent that slavery has done, left its 
blight and curse upon the race of man. . . . Christian slavery is 
the Golgotha of History." The very name. Christian slavery, is a 
tragedy. Nor has the white man been the only offender, nor has 
the black man been the only victim. 

" In the latter part of the seventeenth century, there were hun- 
dreds of Scotsmen, mixed with Negroes, doing the work of beasts, 
and reddening the lash of their drivers with the hero blood that won 
Bannockburn Moor and glowed in the gules of Glory on the tragic 
slopes of Flodden Hill. ... In the American plantations, along 
with the Negro of Caromandel and Mozambique, the Scotsmen of 
Ayrshire and Galloway toiled under conditions of the most de- 
graded slavery." 

Less than 250 years ago the " Lowlands of Scotland were a hunt- 
ing ground for slaves ! " The land that produced " a Wallace, a 
Burns, a Scott and a Carlyle, and scores of Stars which in the 
firmament of history can never set ! " 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 47 

Read the story of the " Battle of Bothwell Brig," and the voyage 
of the hapless ship, The Crown, and see how " The prayers of 
misery and the psalms of delirium, in the key of agony, ran the 
gamut of despair; while the chorus of the ocean's thunder-song 
shook the foundations of the world." 

The lowlander's wailing chant of the versified psalm is as heart- 
rending as the Negro's agonized " Couldn't hear nobody pray." 

" By Babel's stream we sat and wept, 

While Zion we thought on ; 
In midst thereof we hung our harps 

The willow trees upon ; 
For there a song required they 

Who did us captive bring; 
Our spoilers called for mirth, and said, 

A song of Zion sing. 
O how " 

The voice of the singer was still and the power of the tyrant 
was broken. The manacled captives of Bothwell Brig had found 
in the angry waters of the stormy Atlantic freedom and peace. 

The wail for liberty greets the dawn of history and the lash of 
the task-master is heard round the world. A harsh, unrelenting 
tyranny of ancestral defect, seems to have inoculated the blood of 
mankind with the virus of oppression. 

Injustice goes by greed and opportunity, and debauchery goes 
by weakness and passion. Color or race have little to do with 
either. The problems of Decatur Street in Atlanta are the problems 
of City Roads in London ; and so the world over. Let us hope that 
knowledge of the past will give light for the future; — and that 
man will yet make a concerted, world-wide effort to obtain justice 
for all mankind. 

My hope for the rise of man is stronger than my belief in the 
fall of man. The Golden Age lies before us, not behind us. A 
knowledge of history is necessary for proper perspective. We are 
too provincial in the South. The greatest barrier to the progress 
of the white man of the South is not the Negro, but the white 
man. The greatest barrier to Negro civil liberty is not the white 
man, but the Negro. Each thinks the other is the one great ob- 
struction in his path. They remind me of the song by Rachel and 
Reuben : — 

" Reuben, I have just been thinking 
What a great world this would be, 

If the men were all transported 
Far beyond the Northern Sea," 

sang the old woman, while her husband melodiously poured forth, 

" Rachel, Rachel, I've been thinking 

What a great world this would be, etc." 

The Indian doubtless thinks we are both right. 



48 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

" Fashion," says Wu Tingfang, the great Chinese s-cholar and 
diplomat, " is the work of the devil. When he made up his mind 
to enslave mankind he found in fashion his most effective weapon. 
... I do not believe that the wearer of a fashionable costume is 
either comfortable or contented. ... It is very curious that what 
is considered indecent in one country is thought to be quite proper 
in another. During the hot summers many Chinese working women 
wear nothing on the upper part of their bodies except a chest pro- 
tector to cover the breasts ; in the Western countries women would 
never think of doing this, even during a season of extreme heat; 
yet they do not mind uncovering their shoulders as low as possible 
for a dinner party, or an evening in the ballroom, or the theater, 
even in the depth of winter." 

In his susceptibility to stampede, " Man has no preeminence 
above a beast." It is quite as easy to stampede a crowd of people 
as a herd of cattle. Fashion stampedes the individual mind. All 
personality is lost. As in dress so in speech and action. Things 
become current by imitation, not by merit. Motives and merits are 
alike ignored by our prejudices. Selfish interests inspire slogans 
that become popular by ignorance and credulity. A cunningly de- 
vised political propaganda has popularized and made fashionable 
that class-meanness that refuses to recognize the Negro as a man. 
It does not represent the best thought of the South. The Negro 
that is happy in second-hand clothing and pleased with a backyard 
residence, is not objectionable. But the Negro that wants new 
clothes and a house on a paved street, becomes at once " a problem." 

So in the Church. Take the Methodist Church, for illustration. 
The African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal 
Zion, Colored Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, South, are 
simply the result of efforts to sidestep the doctrine of human 
brotherhood. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, welcomed 
the Negro slave to membership, but set him aside to keep house for 
himself when he became a freed man. It now hesitates to recog- 
nize him as a free man. 

The great Methodist Episcopal Church itself, that did so much 
noble work for the Negro when he was a freed man, is finding the 
slowly evolving Negro free man " a problem." Both of these de- 
nominations were right in the efforts first mentioned. It was a 
frank, wise, just and kindly act of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, to set up its Colored membership into an independent self- 
governing body. It was true Christianity that prompted the 
Methodist Episcopal Church to work among the freed men. 

These two great branches of the Church Militant have the key 
to the Race Problem of the South. It is simple. They have but 
to stand by their guns. Be brave enough to trust themselves, to 
trust the Negro, to trust God and accept the consequences of their 
first righteous steps — treat the Negro as a man. Give him a man's 



^' 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 49 

chance, and demand of him a man's work. Let him know that 
opportunity means responsibihty. 

Just now the Negro is demanding of the white man opportunity 
without a full appreciation of responsibility; and the white man 
is demanding of the Negro responsibility without giving him oppor- 
tunity. Let us be honest and fair with each other. One army of 
Christ, in separate regiments necessarily, but a solid phalanx, let 
us battle for the right of all men to justice, happiness and fair play. 

The same growing racial self-respect on the part of the Negro 
that is demanding of the great Methodist Episcopal Church a full- 
fledged bishop of Negro blood, will protect that church from 
social embarrassment if such a bishop is granted; and the great 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, will find in the Colored Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church fruitful soil where brotherly kindness and 
Christian sympathy will bring forth harvests of gratitude ; " some 
thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold." 

The same is true of all denominations of Christians common to 
both races in the South. 

" To develop a pure and lofty human soul, you must eschew all 
that is brutal, degrading, and cruel, and widen and brighten the 
arena in which the moral sense has to develop and unfold." 

Belief in man is the inevitable complement of belief in God; in 
fact, belief in God is unavailing unless supplemented by belief in 
man. 

It is our privilege to build upon the ruins of the past the civiliza- 
tion of the future. 

Universality is the new light by which modern thought hopes to 
end man's age-long quest to 

" Build his life with love and gladness 
Into the structure of the universe." 

When Frenchmen wrote with patriotic blood, " Liberte, egalite, 
fratemite," on the escutcheon of France, its blessings were in- 
tended mainly for Frenchmen ; when the Barons forced the Bill of 
Rights from King John at Runnymede they were defending the 
rights of a class. When the 54th Massachusetts unflinchingly 
faced death upon the bloody sands of Fort Wagner, 

" The old Flag never touched the ground " 

that the courage of a race might be vindicated. When Lincoln 
issued his famous Emancipation Proclamation, it was done to save 
a government. The religious liberty for which the Pilgrim Fathers 
broke up their homes and ventured across a chartless ocean to 
reside in a trackless wilderness was not broad enough to cover 
New England. Leonidas and his 300 Lacedaemonians died at Ther- 
mopylae in defense of Greece. Xenophon led the retreat of the 
Ten Thousand for the same purpose. The Noble Six Hundred 



^ 



50 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

died for the martial glory of England — and Csesar lived and 
died to glorify Rome. The "all men" of the Declaration of In- 
dependence excluded the majority of mankind. 

In every age and every clime men have sung of liberty and 
preached of justice, but always with a circumscription that brought 
calamity. But " whosoever will " may partake of the benefits of 
citizenship in the kingdom of Righteousness which the " pale 
Galilean " died to build. 



THE NEGRO CHURCH AS A MEDIUM FOR 
RACE EXPRESSION 

C. T. WALKER, D.D., 

Augusta, Ga., Pastor Tabernacle Institutional Colored Baptist Church. 

The Negro Church has furnished the Negro the best oppor- 
tunity that the race has had in the United States to demonstrate 
its ability to govern itself. Scores of years before the great Civil 
War of 1 861-1865, Negroes in America were permitted in many 
places in the North and West and also in a few places in the South 
to have their own meeting-houses, and under a certain sort of 
overseership were permitted to conduct their own meetings. And 
since the war, or that is to say during the past fifty years, the 
Negroes have found in the church the chief opportunity to show 
to the world that they could organize in large numbers and conduct 
great business and religious enterprises. 

The leading denominations among the Negroes are the African 
Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion 
Church, the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Mission- 
ary Baptist Church. We have some Presbyterians, Congregation- 
alists, Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics, and we have several 
thousand communicants in the Methodist Episcopal Church, which 
we usually call the Northern Methodist Church, in order to distin- 
guish it from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. As a matter 
of fact, nevertheless, these denominations last named are fewer in 
numbers than those named in the first list given, and, even if their 
numbers were larger, these last named churches are so mixed up 
with the white denominations of the same names, officially and 
otherwise, that they do not furnish as bright exainples of the possi- 
bilities of the Negro race as the Methodists and Baptists do. 

As a separate and distinct organization, the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church is far and away ahead of any other denomination 
of Negro Christians. It has the largest number of bishops and 
other general officers ; it has an excellent printing plant with de- 
partments in Philadelphia and in Nashville ; it publishes its own 
Sunday School literature, and conducts three church newspapers 
and one quarterly religious magazine of a high order. Of all the 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 51 

branches of Methodists, it has the largest number of communi- 
cants, and of the great men and leaders of the race this Church has 
its full share, if not more than its full share. Every year, by rea- 
son of its system, the African Methodist Episcopal Church raises 
more money for education and missions, for current expenses and 
for general purposes, than any other similar organization. As a 
medium for race expression, as a church which has furnished the 
world with a shining example of the capabilities and possibilities 
of the race, the African Methodist Church stands in the very fore- 
front. 

The denomination with which I have the honor to be connected, 
the Baptist denomination, when we speak of mere numbers, leads 
all others — in fact there are more Negro Baptists in this country 
than there are members of all the other denominations above named 
put together, including those that are intimately allied with the 
white denominations whose names they bear. Yes ; we lead in 
numbers, but I think, and I sometimes say, that we do not lead in 
anything else. 

The Negro Church has been a remarkable success. Considering 
the environment of the Negro race in this countr>% I doubt if the 
Negro Church could have more nobly filled its huge and multiform 
task. It has been a large and an important factor in the evangeliza- 
tion and development of the whole country, and especially the 
South. The vast majority of the Negro race in this country are 
residents of the South. The Negro Church, therefore, forms a 
large and important factor in the Christianity of the South. In 
at least four of the Southern States the number of Negro church 
members exceeds the number of white church members. These 
four States are Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina. 
This fact stands out more prominently when we say that only in 
Mississippi and South Carolina does the colored population exceed 
the white population. In point of church membership the Negro 
has equaled, if he has not excelled, his white brother in the South. 
And for the whole country as well, the proportion of colored peo- 
ple who belong to some church is larger than that which obtains 
among the white people. About one in every three whites is a 
church member. On this basis there should be about 3,333,000 
Colored church members ; whereas the actual number of Negro 
church members in the United States is 3,714,000, an excess of 
more than 400,000 beyond the proportion that obtains among the 
whites. 

Fifty-one years ago, the immortal Lincoln, as he signed the 
Emancipation Proclamation, said: "The colored people will prob- 
ably help in some trying time to keep the jewel of liberty within 
the family of freedom." It is a matter of historical record that 
the Emancipated Negro has done so. And we may say with equal 
truth that the Negro has helped in many a dark hour to keep the 



52 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

jewel of orthodoxy within the family of Christ. Others have gone 
off after strange gods — the Negroes never. Other races have 
produced infidels and skeptics, atheists and doubters — the Negroes 
never. The Negro is entirely and sincerely orthodox. Never in 
the history of religion in this country has any Negro ever been 
tried for heresy. The Negro race has never yet produced a " higher 
critic." Our faith is simple, childlike and unfeigned. We have 
never needed a Committee on the " Re-statement of our Faith." 
We believe in a literal hell, that is bottomless and that burns with 
fire and brimstone ; we believe in a " sho-nuff " devil ; we believe 
the whole Bible. We are so orthodox and so enthusiastic in our 
religious zeal that we not only believe all that the Bible says, but 
in addition, for fear of being lost in the last day, the Negro be- 
lieves a good deal that the Bible doesn't say. 

We find also, in studying the history of the Negro Church, an 
expression of the Negro's willingness to pay for his religion. The 
value of the churches (grounds and buildings) owned by the Negro 
race is in the neighborhood of $30,000,000. The number of Negro 
church edifices is more than 30,000. And the number of Negro 
preachers is, in the language of John on Patmos, " a great multi- 
tude which no man can number," Making allowance for the gen- 
erous help which the whites have given, it still appears that the 
Negro has not been unwilling to make large sacrifices for the sake 
of religion, and that his industry, thrift and business capacity have 
been made to contribute to his successful endeavors to provide him- 
self with suitable accommodations for public worship. 

I confess that among colored disciples as among white disciples 
there are doubtless many erring ones, yet on the whole I am sure 
that it is fair to say that the influence of the Negro Church has 
been helpful and not hurtful, constructive and not destructive, 
good and not bad. It is true that every now and then some colored 
church member will steal a chicken or a ham ; but our white friends 
should be charitable with us in this matter because every now and 
then I read in the newspapers where some white church member 
has confiscated a railroad or a bank! 

The Negro Church has been the chief promoter not only of 
the moral and spiritual uplift of the race, but it has also been the 
leader in the business development and progress of the race. 
Necessarily, the Negro Church has always been a very compre- 
hensive institution. It is still to a large extent and has always been, 
the center not only of the Negro's religious life, but of his social, 
intellectual and business life as well. Our banks, our insurance 
companies, our mercantile establishments, our fair associations, and 
similar corporations have been compelled to use the Negro Church 
as a foundation stone upon which to stand until they could stand 
alone. Be it said to the credit of most of the Negro pastors that 
they have always been willing to lend a helping hand to struggling 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 53 

business ventures and they have also done what they could to teach 
their members to have confidence in Negro enterprises. Our 
schools — I mean our struggling educational institutions ; our phy- 
sicians (especially when they first go into a town to begin their 
careers) ; our editors; and our book agents (both white and col- 
ored), have to depend very largely upon the Negro Church in order 
to promote their different and several projects. The Negro Church 
is agent, co-ad jutor, side-partner, chief publicity manager for all 
these and for numberless other interests which intimately concern 
the welfare of the race. 

The Negro Church also furnishes the Negro a great opportunity 
to learn the game of politics, and not only to learn it but also 
to play it to his heart's content. Of course, I regret to mention 
this fact; but it fits logically into my subject, and so I must men- 
tion it. No denomination is, I think, guiltless in this respect ; but 
some are greater sinners than others. If you think I am mistaken 
in this opinion it is because you did not attend either as a visitor 
or a delegate the last General Conference of the African Methodist 
Church at Kansas City two years ago nor the General Conference 
of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church held at Augusta four 
years ago. Of course, the injection of politics and of political 
tactics into churches and church work is reprehensible and is to 
be condemned, but, since the Negro is shut out now pretty thor- 
oughly from State and National politics, he has left only his 
churches, his lodges, and at times his benevolent societies in which 
to practice the game. 

Let me in conclusion touch on a few things in which the Negro 
Church needs to make improvement. For one thing, colored church 
members must be taught to go to church on time and the ministers 
must be taught to begin their services on time. To-day it is the 
rule, not the exception, that where the service is announced for 
II A.M. or 8 P.M., it will be 11:30 or 8:30 before the service 
begins. This is a glaring fault and needs to be corrected. And 
then the Negro must be taught better and truer ideas of conversion. 
He must be taught that emotionalism, whatever part it may play 
in religion, cannot be substituted for genuine piety. In the third 
place, the Negro must be taught a greater reverence for the house 
of God itself and for the service of the Most High. For a fourth 
thing, the Negroes must be taught to conduct their church collec- 
tions differently. In the average Negro church it takes a half hour 
following the sermon to " lift the collection," as we are in the 
habit of saying. This is fundamentally wrong, and should be cor- 
rected speedily. In the matters just complained of, the Negro 
Church as a medium of race expression proves that the Negro is 
lacking in a due regard for time and that there is vast room for 
improvement in the Negro's conceptions of the Christian religion and 
in his methods of church work and church worship. 



54 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

The Negro Church has done well — demonstrably well. It will 
do a great deal better when it ceases to be the center of the Negro's 
social, intellectual, business and religious life and becomes only 
what it should be ; namely, the center of moral and spiritual growth 
and development. 



THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE NEGRO RACE TO THE 
INTERPRETATION OF CHRISTIANITY 

EDWIN M. POTEAT, 

Greenville, S. C, President Furman University. 

Christianity is the universal religion. It follows that an indi- 
vidual, or provincial or even a racial interpretation of Christianity 
must necessarily be inadequate. All the races must yield their 
separate and special interpretation of it before our religion can be 
fully known. 

The first interpretation of Christianity was given by the Jews; 
the next by the Greeks ; the next by the Romans ; the next by the 
Teutons; the next by the Anglo-Saxons; as yet the Yellow races 
and the Black race have not yielded their interpretation. 

Agreeably to their race characteristics, the Jews interpreted 
Christianity in terms of righteousness. The characteristic note of 
the Old Testament is "Jehovah loveth righteousness" (Cf. Paul 
in the New Testament). When the Greek mind laid hold of Chris- 
tianity it interpreted it in terms of Philosophy. Witness the Nicene 
Creed. When the Romans essayed the same task, Christianity be- 
came in their interpretation an Empire Church, for they were the 
Empire builders of the period. It was a characteristic of the Teu- 
tonic mind which issued in the individualistic interpretation cff 
Christianity by the Protestant Reformation —" The just shall live 
by faith"— his own faith and not another's. Now the Anglo- 
Saxon has been the colonizing race of the modern world, and they 
have pushed their civilization to the ends of the earth. Accordingly 
in their hands Christianity became the Missionary religion and un- 
dertakes to conquer the whole world in the name of Jesus. 

It will be the task of the Yellow races and the Black race to 
give their interpretation in the course of time. And we know 
enough of their racial characteristics to at least guess at some of 
the features of their interpretation. What will the Negro race 
give to our fuller understanding of Christianity? To answer this 
question we must observe : 

First : The Negro assumes God. Dan Crawford in " Thinking 
Black," and in numerous addresses the past twelve months in the 
United States, has made that abundantly clear. He tells us that 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 55 

there is not a Negro in the whole of the Dark Continent who would 
stoop low to argue the existence of God with a Boston Atheist. 
The Negro mind seems never to get tangled in second causes. An 
old Mammy, almost starving, prayed for bread. Some wicked boys 
heard the prayer and got a loaf and threw it over her door into 
her room. Whereupon the devout soul fell into a rapture of 
thanksgiving to God. The boys broke in laughing and said : 
" Aunty, you are mistaken ! God did not send the bread ; we 
brought it." She was ready with her reply — " God sent it even if 
the Devil brought it ! " 

Second : Observe some of the characteristics of the Negro re- 
ligion. 

a : It has a way of disassociating religion and morals, though 
this is not peculiar to the Negro race. Many people of all races 
have their religion and their business life done up in separate com- 
partments ; bulkheads with no communication between. But the 
Negro's emotionalism sometimes satisfies him with ecstatic feelings, 
after the manner of the man who acknowledged : " I sometimes 
gets tipsy, and I lifts a chicken now and then, and I uses my razor 
at socials now and then, but thank God, I ain't lost my religion yet." 

" De Augus' meetin's over now — 
We's all done bin baptize ; 
Me and Ham and Hickory Jim 
And Joe's big Lize. 

Oh, 'ligion is a cu'is thing, 
A-workin' 'mongst men ; 
We hatter wait a whole year now 
'Fo gittin baptized agin." 

But it should be added that the emotionalism of the Negro reli- 
gion stands for genuine emotion and is not hysterical, as among 
dervishes for example, though, of course, it must be confessed that 
it sometimes reaches the hysterical state. 

b : Pathos : There is a pathetic strain in the Negro religion ; a 
minor key persists in their folk-songs and folk-lore. There is a 
pining for home, the better time coming. Do we not feel it in these 
lines, for example: "I want to be a Christian in my heart" — 
" I couldn't hear nobody pray " — " Swing low Sweet Chariot." 
Even Brer Rabbit in the midst of his fun and tricks is not far 
from tears, and when mists rise and cold winds blow, Uncle Benja- 
min Ram " Jes natcherly hones for home." Is not this typical of 
the Negro's longing for Heaven? 

c : Non-Resistance : The Negro race is a long-suffering race. 
The Red Man is revengeful. The White Man will pay you back 
in kind and the Yellow Man will pay you back in some crafty way ; 
but the Negro, with, of course, exceptions, will not pay you back 



56 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

at all. Pliability is the right word to describe him — " Yas, sir, 
Yas, sir, Boss ! dat's all right." And he will forget a rebuff or a 
slight as completely as a child. 

d : And this leads to the fourth characteristic — Simplicity. 
Simplicity is the final stage of the religious experience as it is the 
first. Religion begins in child-likeness and is consummated in child- 
likeness. No race on earth is so obedient to the revealed will of 
God as is the Negro. " What does the Book say ? " is his question 
and when you have answered, there is the end of the parley. 

e: Gregariousness — the Social Instinct is strong in the whole 
race. A lonely Negro is the loneliest person in the world. He 
must have company; he goes in groups. He loves folks and this 
appears conspicuously in all his religious life and activities. 

Third: If we have correctly specified some features of the 
Negro religion, what now may be said of his interpretation of 
Christianity? The racial characteristics just named will reappear 
in this interpretation. Simplicity, pliability, pathos — these indi- 
cate the passive virtues. The non-aggressive aspects of Christi- 
anity will have special emphasis in the Negro interpretation, and 
perhaps we shall find out from them anew the meaning of such 
texts as : " One is our Master and all ye are brothers." " We 
are members one of another." 

And because of these special racial characteristics the Negro in- 
terpretation of Christianity will avoid the two great errors into 
which Western Christendom has fallen. These are Ritualism and 
Rationalism. Both these began early in Western Christendom, — 
as early, let us say, as the beginning of the middle of the second 
century ; and they have both had a great development — one culmi- 
nating in the elaborate ritual and creed of the prelatical Churches ; 
the other in the Philosophical Christianity of a man like Eucken, 
for instance. 

Now the Negro takes neither to the Ritualist nor to the Ration- 
alist heresy ; and if he goes after either it is probably because he has 
been tampered with by white people. The Negro nature is the 
best guarantee that Christianity in his hands will never become 
either Prelacy or Rationalism. 

What we have here said affords a powerful exhortation for the 
conquest of Africa. For it is out of that darkness that the light 
we have spoken of will arise. Ethiopia will not only stretch out 
her hands to God for blessing, but will stretch out her hands in 
blessing to all the Christian world. 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 57 



THE RELATION OF THE SOUTHERN WHITE MAN TO 
THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO IN CHURCH 

COLLEGES 

J. D. HAMMOND, D.D., 

Augusta, Ga., President Paine College. 

Education is the agency by which human nature has always 
been transformed from a state of inefficiency to one of helpfulness 
in all matters of human progress. Nothing in the world of living 
things is exempt from this law. Life means growth, and growth 
means development towards ideal perfectness. No individual, or 
species, of the plant or animal kingdom has ever yet attained to that 
completeness of function of which it carries in itself the prophecy. 
A leading feature of life as we know it is the capability of being 
improved. No matter how good a thing is it is soon cast on the 
rubbish heap if we cannot improve it. Education is simply another 
word for the process of improvement. Our progress in civilization 
has come about as the result of our activity in the use of this 
process. Because we have discovered the improvability of plant 
and animal life we have made our progress in agriculture and the 
textile arts. These underlie all our advancement in trade and com- 
merce. 

But of all man's efforts in developing life the one in which he 
has reaped the greatest results is that of the development of his 
own life. Any improvement of life which proceeds without refer- 
ence to self-improvement is suicidal; while that which is based on 
self-improvement is both lasting and satisfying. A community 
which seeks to develop its factories at the expense of its children 
is laying the foundation of its own economic ruin. Improvement 
in the character of any portion of the community means an increase 
in economic values throughout the whole community. The indi- 
vidual who is content to clothe himself in rags, live on the crumbs 
which fall from the tables of the rich and use his brain only as a 
sounding-board for the clamors of his lawless appetites, is a clog 
on the commerce of the community, and real estate values go down 
in his immediate neighborhood. But when he begins to exchange 
his rags for whole clothes, and these in turn for tailor-made gar- 
ments ; and when he begins to find that his brain was made to be 
the servant of an enlightened conscience and a progressive mind, 
then he begins to feel the need of a better home, and such furniture, 
books, musical instruments and other articles of civilization as are 
provided for in the trade of any modern community. Thus he 
becomes an asset in the business life of his community. Take any 
of our modern cities in which the " submerged tenth " act as a 
deteriorating influence; let the Board of Trade in its efforts to 



58 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

" bring in capital " take into account the possibilities of this neg- 
lected element; let it go to work improving the public schools 
amongst them ; let it encourage the home-mission workers who look 
after the manners and morals of their children ; let it aid the Civic- 
Betterment League in its efforts to reduce slum-conditions, and 
it will find that it has opened up a veritable gold-mine of pros- 
perity. But it will find that it has done better still in bringing 
higher and more lasting benefits to the community. The resulting 
peace and good-will between neighbors will produce a new ideal of 
prosperity, which will outrank that of the mere material as far as 
that outranks the poverty and shiftlessness of the slums. 

Some amongst us oppose the education of the Negro on the ground 
that it unfits him for usefulness as a laborer; and yet these same 
men are the first to deprecate the unproductiveness and wasteful- 
ness of incompetent laborers, and are more than willing to put a 
premium on competency by paying it increased wages. 

Fortunately there is a large and growing class of Southern white 
people who frankly accept their obligation to the Negro and who, 
even now, are taking up the burden of service to the weaker race. 
Our appropriations to the Negro public school, while they are fear- 
fully inadequate, are, at the same time, an indication that we do 
not mean to leave the Negro out of the count in our progress. Our 
faith in his college and professional training is still small, notwith- 
standing his undeniable ability to profit by them. But there are 
growing indications of the acceptance on the part of the Southern 
white man of the doctrine of the Negro's improvability. 

The Church college has a special mission to the young of both 
the white and the colored race. The Christian ideal and discipline 
for which it stands are indispensable in the work of molding char- 
acter. The training of both head and heart must be carried on in 
unison. Any appeal to the ambitions of youth that leaves out the 
emotional and religious elements will defeat its own purposes in 
the long run of Hfe. These things are no less true in the case 
of the Negro than in that of the white man. And they are specially 
applicable in the college and university stages of education where 
the mind enters on the sphere of philosophical thought. It is not 
a question with us whether we shall confine the Negro to the merely 
industrial department of education ; that matter was settled by the 
Creator of his mind and body. He already has his philosophy of 
the universe and of his relation to it. But it does matter whether 
that philosophy be right or wrong; and this question can only be 
settled for him by his leaders ; and these leaders can only be pre- 
pared for their important mission by means of higher institutions 
of learning. Industrial education is equally important for both 
races; but the education of any race, if confined to this sphere, 
will leave that race utilitarian in its morals and materialistic in its 
ideals. Whatever may be his race man cannot live the outward 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 59 

life of the flesh as it should be lived until he has first learned to 
live the inward life of the spirit. To do this he needs not only 
the basal element of religion, but also the idealism supplied by the 
higher education and by the habit of truth-seeking and of loyalty 
to truth which it is the province of the college and the university 
to induce. The ideals of Christian culture which have been wrought 
out by the human race are its most precious possessions, and they 
are the property of all. No higher obligation can rest on those who 
possess them than that of imparting them to those who do not pos- 
sess them. One of the most urgent duties of Southern white men 
is to join forces with the leaders of the Negro race in the establish- 
ment and conduct of institutions for the higher education of their 
people. 

This must be a joint work of the two races since neither is in 
position to do it unaided by the other. No race or class has a 
monopoly of true education ; but that which has been evolved in 
modern times under Christian influences in Europe and America 
has established itself in the confidence of the world and become the 
accepted method for the education of mankind. The white race 
of the South is the natural and responsible element through which 
this education must do its work in the South. It is through them 
that the Negro race would naturally receive its education. The 
Negro is not, as yet, in position to do all that is necessary for his 
own education. He cannot provide out of his own resources and 
experience the institutions which are needed. Anyone who has had 
to do with the education of the white people of this country knows 
how hard it is to make it what it professes to be and to keep it from 
degenerating into a travesty. If the Negro had the money to build 
and equip the needed institutions he has not the educational past, 
which is far more important, to qualify him for the task of higher 
education. Individuals here and there are qualified, but they are 
not in sufficient numbers for the demand. But even if they were 
they would still need the sympathy and intelligent cooperation of 
the educational leaders of the more advanced race. Educational 
institutions cannot be created at will ; they must be the product of 
the civilization which they represent. In all the centuries of Chinese 
history the race has never produced one real educational institution. 
As Western ideas have permeated the nation it has gradually 
dawned on it that the so-called system of education which has 
been in use for thousands of years must be laid aside in favor of 
that of the West. In the introduction of modern education in 
China and Japan it was found necessary to call on the scholars 
of Europe and America to establish their institutions on a right 
basis. These institutions are even now under the control, to a 
great extent, of Western educators. It would be unreasonable 
then to expect the Negro race, which has no more of an educa- 
tional past than the Chinese race, and which has only a limited 



6o 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 



literature of its own, to do all that is necessary for its own higher 
education. 

To stress the importance of higher education for the Negro 
does not carry with it the claim that such an education is possible 
to all, or desirable for more than the exceptional part. Even the 
white race is demonstrating every day that only its exceptional 
members can take college or professional training. Yet we do not 
consider this an argument against higher education for white peo- 
ple. All our college graduates — and more than all — are needed 
for leadership. But there is a sense in which no race can furnish 
leaders for another race. The white race can no longer, as it once 
did, furnish the men to fill the pulpits of the Negro church. It 
cannot supply the doctors, the lawyers, the financiers, the authors, 
the social leaders and others who are essential to the progress of 
the race. But it can and should, by cooperation with the advanced 
members of the race, establish and, for the time being, maintain 
such educational institutions as are necessary for the training of 
this leadership. 

The South now has the opportunity of taking the lead in this co- 
operation. The Northern philanthropist is more and more stressing 
industrial and high-school training for the Negro, and while it 
opens the doors of some of its higher institutions to him it cannot 
make it easy for him to take advantage of the opportunities thus 
afforded. The Negro cannot look longer to this source for all the 
aid he needs in the matter of higher education. And then the 
Negro's own pride is beginning to assert itself to the extent that 
he feels it a humiliation to have to be dealt with on a missionary 
basis. The old order is passing; the age of the "black mammy" 
is a thing of the past; and " social equality," so far as the Negro 
is concerned, is a dead issue. He is coming to appreciate his own 
race, and to appreciate the white man just in proportion as he 
does the same thing. He does not feel that aid from the white 
people of the South is so much in the nature of missionary work 
as it is in the nature of cooperation. He feels, and justly so. that 
the Southern people owe him a debt, and that aid at their hands 
is rather a compensation than a charity. It is not so much money 
that he wants as justice and brotherliness. He has money of his 
own, and he knows how to give it for the uses of religion and 
education. But he is lacking in experience at certain vital points 
at which his white brother of the South is specially qualified to give 
him aid. 

These two races, so far as we can see, are providentially ap- 
pointed to live together, for all time to come, as neighbors. The 
Negro constitutes one-third of the population of the Southern 
states; and under improved conditions this proportion is liable to 
increase rather than otherwise. Not so much from a demand on 
his part as from a growing sense of justice on the part of the 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 6l 

white man, his human status is bound to go on improving. Nag- 
ging measures of legislation, unequal treatment in the courts, po- 
litical intimidation and exploitation, and unkind discriminations in 
matters which affect his own manhood and self-respect will all 
pass as an evil dream. The self-respecting Anglo-Saxon cannot 
permit himself to permanently hold the attitude which he has held 
since the period of " Reconstruction " toward the dependent and 
weaker race. He has coursing through his veins the traditions of 
ten centuries ; and he belongs to a race which has always shaped 
its policies by the single consideration of right. He is coming — 
slowly it may be — to the place where he will ask himself the 
question: "Is my relation to the Negro right?" not: "Is it 
what ' Reconstruction ' prejudice has made it? " 

Just in proportion as the weaker race, under the influences of 
humane treatment by the stronger, begins to realize its liberty to 
breathe freely and to reach out in any direction for the rewards 
of life appropriate to its needs, will it show what is in it for good, 
and eliminate that which is bad. Thus with the help of the 
advanced race will it take its proper place in the great brother- 
hood of men, and contribute its share to the common weal. To 
judge otherwise is to go against all precedent. Never in the his- 
tory of man has the stronger gone to work in the spirit of Christ 
to lift up the weaker without receiving back more than it gave. 
To suppose that justice, sympathy and guidance on the part of the 
Southern white man would be met by presumption and ingratitude 
on the part of the Negro is to suppose that bitter waters can flow 
from a sweet fountain, or that a good tree can bring forth evil 
fruit. And to imagine that the way to elicit from the Negro the 
spirit of gratitude and helpful cooperation is to keep him ignorant 
and poor and to destroy his self-respect, is to vainly imagine that 
sweet waters can flow from a bitter fountain, or that a corrupt 
tree can bring forth good fruit. 

The Negro's own history amongst us is a parable of what his 
future relation to us should be. In seven or eight short generations 
of slavery he changed the face of a large part of our territory 
from the virgin forest and the deadly jungle to a succession of 
well-cultivated fields ; made " cotton king " and gave the section 
which had the monopoly of its production a leading place in the 
affairs of the nation until the coming of the civil war. Now he has 
come out of the great " baptism of blood " a virgin race, present- 
ing great tracts of undeveloped humanity, and inviting the sons 
of the masters in whose service he spent himself so unstintingly 
and cheerfully to labor in turn for his development. Who shall 
say that in this vast, rich soil of humanity we shall not find oppor- 
tunities for wealth and power far greater than were found in our 
primeval forests? 



62 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

THE SOCIAL MESSAGE OF THE CHURCH 

MRS. ARCH TRAWICK, 

Nashville, Tenn., President of the Board of Directors, Y. W. C. A. 

In attending conventions and conferences in recent years where 
problems of race relationship and development have been discussed, 
I have found myself deeply interested in the reports of the work 
being done by the colored people. 

The progress of the Negro race in the last half century is noth- 
ing short of marvelous. Yet as I have sat and listened to the 
figures that show the increase in the acreage of land owned by 
Negroes, its value, and the taxes paid on it, increase in farm prod- 
ucts, and their value, increase in number and value of schools, 
increase in pupils, number of banks organized, increase in deposits, 
number of men in professional life, and on, and on, I have felt 
first depressed, then encouraged. 

The desires for material prosperity and intellectual attainment 
are legitimate and commendable. Yet to me there is a real danger 
that the spirit of materialism may become so absorbing as to de- 
stroy the sense of spiritual values and proportion. We may lose 
sight of the fact that it profits a man nothing if he gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul. The essential thing is to seek first 
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things 
shall be added unto us as a result of our spiritual richness. Then 
on the other hand encouragement comes because of this material 
improvement. A race capable of such progress in the face of tre- 
mendous difficulties can be a great world force for good if it turns 
its attention to the development of its spiritual life. 

It has already been brought out at this convention that the Negro 
is deeply religious, if somewhat emotional, that his religion is not 
decadent, and that the Negro pastor exerts a great influence on 
his people. These leaders of religious thought and life have not 
always availed themselves of their opportunity to foster high ideals, 
to direct the energies of their people wisely, and to interpret re- 
ligion in the terms of every-day life. A great field has been neg- 
lected here, for the Negro is more responsive, more generous, more 
appreciative, has more confidence in, and loyalty to, his spiritual 
leader than his white brother. 

The Church comes in for its share of criticism in this day. We 
hear it said that it is losing its hold, and failing to meet the needs 
of men. Is there any other agency doing half as much to help 
mankind ? Mistakes have been made ; but the Church cannot change 
heredity, nor undo past history. It cannot bring about sudden and 
wholesale revolutions. A membership cannot be educated in a 
day, nor a leader trained by waving a magic wand ; but the Church 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 63 

must not leave these problems for time alone to solve, and its 
adherents have no intention to abandon the field. 

At the Edinburgh Conference discussion of the Home Base 
brought forth the statement that the key to the world situation is 
in the hands of the preacher, and that the average pastor cannot 
see beyond the bounds of his own congregation. 

I think the members are about as guilty as their pastors. Most 
congregations are so busy back-sliding and getting into mischief that 
it takes all the pastor's time keeping them in the straight and nar- 
row path. What do you find occupying the thought and time of 
the average congregation? Their programme for improvements 
generally embraces a new church or Sunday-school room, carpet, 
pews, cushions, paint or organ. The programme needed is not one 
for material improvement, but one taking part in community im- 
provement and in world-wide evangelization. 

Stelzle says our trouble is due to our one-sided development. 
The Church has been spiritually converted, has learned to love the 
Lord God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, but it is not yet 
socially converted. We have not realized that the Second Com- 
mandment is like unto, or equal to, the First: that we should love 
our neighbor as ourselves. After all, the social theory of the 
Christian religion is very simple — based on belief in God and 
belief in man. On this foundation the Church must have a social 
message. There can be no divorce of religion and morals. The 
Church's concern is with the individual, the home, the school, the 
community, the State, the nation. 

Jesus Christ looked at life as a whole. The Church must do the 
same. He made no difference between the secular and the religious. 
All that concerned man belonged to religion and service. He re- 
buked sin wherever He found it. Does the Church speak against 
sin in the high places? His was a personal ministry by personal 
means; and He dealt with sin, righteousness, and judgment. He 
spoke in no uncertain tone about the importance of right family 
relationships, condemned divorce, was concerned for childhood, 
and found nothing trivial or unimportant that touched our daily 
life at any point. 

The Church to-day must speak authoritatively, urging righteous- 
ness in every relation of life. God is first a God of righteousness ; 
His kingdom is righteousness on earth. The message of His 
Church is the abolition of wrong, the bringing in of truth, justice, 
and righteousness. Jesus Christ did not come to reform a few 
people, but to save a world. The twelve were not saved for them- 
selves alone, but to give themselves on and on. 

n the message of the Church is righteousness, the socializing 
power is love. Our ability to love is the great test of our regen- 
erated life. The inner expression of our faith and love is in our 
prayer life. The outward expression of faith and love is in serv- 



64 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

ice; and there can be no real, acceptable service without loss of 
self. 

So we come to the three laws of spiritual life : love, service, sacri- 
fice. 

Put in other terms, the theory of social religion is sympathy, 
inspiration, efficiency. The practice of social religion is clean liv- 
ing, social action, social justice. A clean life, expressed in social 
action, helps to bring in social justice. 

For generations the religious thought of the Church has been 
turned toward personal salvation. It will continue to emphasize 
the individual, but it will realize the necessity of saving the com- 
munity. State, and nation in order to reach the individual. The 
Church is made up of individuals who must give life to have life. 

Men are not equal. They are not bom equal, and do not become 
equal. But all are of God; they belong to Him, and are of equal 
value to Him, and they are entitled to equal justice and opportunity. 
But they do not seem of equal value to us. Thousands of men, 
women, and children in Christian America are overworked, under- 
fed, and under paid ; they live in dark, filthy, damp, overcrowded, 
unsanitary houses ; are victims of disease, intemperance, vice, crime, 
poverty, and often are as deaf to the appeal of religion as an adder 
is to music. 

The Church exists to build up character ; but in the face of such 
conditions it sometimes acts as if it were powerless. If it takes its 
mission seriously, it cannot be indifferent to this state of affairs, 
nor refuse to bring relief. It must at least make it possible for 
men to hear the message it has for their souls. 

Hence it must concern itself with the physical foundation of 
our spiritual selves. A people cannot be better than its homes. 
Religious life can not be detached from the home. The Church 
must furnish ideals that are practical for bringing individuals, fam- 
ilies, communities, trades, industries, professions, education, citizen- 
ship, the nation, under the control of the teachings of Jesus Christ. 
Some one has said that ideals are the most perfect possible mental 
pictures of the best things in any department of human action. We 
stay on the lower levels of moral excellence not so much from in- 
tention as from lack of spiritual insight. 

There is scarcely a reform in which Christian people are inter- 
ested in which the Church as an organization should not be enlisted. 
Some practical things it should aid in securing are: one day's rest 
in seven for every worker; suppressing gambling, the social evil, 
and drunkenness ; the use of cocaine and other habit-forming drugs ; 
it should work for better housing conditions and more playgrounds 
for white children and Negro children. It has a duty to social 
outcasts, drunkards, discharged prisoners, degraded women and 
men. It is called to minister to all of these, that the leaves of 
the tree of life may be for the healing of the people. 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 65 

Every congregation, under the guidance of its minister, should 
be a force for good in the community, an agency engaged not only 
in relief work, but in preventing evil and carrying out a positive 
constructive policy for physical, mental, social, and spiritual good. 

We have already heard of its place as a center of influence in 
the community, and much has been said of the country church. The 
agencies at its command are : the Sunday school, the teaching- 
force, young people's societies, women's missionary societies, neigh- 
borhood circles, study classes, and such other organizations as it 
may see fit to call into being or with which it may choose to co- 
operate. 

Denominational and racial cooperation are necessary in any 
scheme for community betterment. 

Is the ideal of individual and civic righteousness unattainable? 
That the Church shall continue to assert its moral and spiritual 
leadership, it must " inspire the State, inspire industry, mold the 
social conscience, until every home in our land to the last poor 
stranger within our gates, becomes the abode of happiness and 
health ; until womanhood in the home shall bear its own natural 
burdens without hunger of body and soul ; or if she is in industry, 
she shall have the right safeguards to virtue and health ; until man- 
hood, in labor that does not decrease self-respect, shall be the an- 
swer to our daily prayer, — Thy kingdom come, as in Heaven, so 
on earth." 

" What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to 
love mercy, and to zvalk humbly with thy God ? " 



REALITY AND RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE TRAINING OF 

CHRISTIAN WORKERS 

THOMAS JESSE JONES, 

Washington, D. C, Bureau of Education. 

The ability to adapt righteousness to the common claims of the 
common day is the immediate need of every Christian worker, 
whether minister or layman. Religion in the abstract saves no one. 
Jesus Christ was always concrete and definite. " For I was an 
hungered and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink ; 
I was a stranger and ye took me in ; naked and ye clothed me ; 
I was sick and ye visited me ; I was in prison and ye came unto me. 
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren ye have done it unto me." 

" Righteousness," writes Dewitt Hyde, " takes an infinite variety 
of forms to meet the varied claims of situations and persons upon 
us. In the home it is kindness ; in business it is honesty ; in society 
it is courtesy; in work it is thoroughness; in play it is fairness; 



66 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

toward the fortunate it is congratulation; toward the unfortunate 
it is pity ; toward the wicked it is resistance ; toward the weak it is 
help; toward the strong it is trust; toward the penitent it is for- 
giveness ; toward God it is reverence and love." 

The preaching of glittering generalities, still so prevalent, is in 
striking contrast with the clear-cut words and works of Jesus 
Christ. The word " Gospel " as used by many, is but sounding 
brass and tinkling cymbal. Sad indeed is it that this term filled so 
full of God's love for men, women and children in all their daily 
toils should be used as a symbol of a one-day-in-seven religion,^ the 
fetish of a loud-sounding lip-service that knows not and sometimes 
cares not for the every-day sorrows of all the people. Thus used, 
the Gospel is but a sort of a patent medicine which is supposed to 
relieve the minister of the difficult job of knowing the people. 

Would that it were so! Would that God had chosen to save 
the world without sending Jesus Christ to live, to work, to suffer, 
to die among the common people of the world. " He was touched 
with our infirmities, and in all points tempted like as we are." 
Why was He touched with our infirmities and all points tempted 
like as we are? That His Gospel might be read, might be con- 
crete, might be applicable to the particular sorrow or ambition 
which the people felt. Even so must the Christian workers of 
to-day seek to know and feel the infirmities of the people by enter- 
ing into their life and participating in their joys and their sorrows. 
"'Tis not what we give, but what we share; for the gift without 
the giver is bare." 

The scope of our Christian activity was given by Job centuries 
ago, when he said " I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the 
lame, I was father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not I 
searched out." While the Christian worker cannot hope to be an 
expert on all phases of human ill or human development, he should 
be sufficiently in touch with the daily life of his people, and suffi- 
ciently acquainted with the great remedial agencies of society to 
point the way out to the unfortunate and show the possibilities of 
still larger visions to the successful. 



FAMILY IDEALS AMONG SOUTHERN NEGROES 

The Building of Homes 

Evils in City Life and the Larger Responsibility 



, 



THE BUILDING OF HOMES 

MRS. J. D. HAMMOND, 

Augusta, Ga. 

The homes of a people, always and everywhere, show what those 
people, individually and collectively, are. They are the barometer 
of the community atmosphere, showing not only its present condi- 
tion, but foretelling with great accuracy a future of fair weather 
or foul for the nation dwelling in them. The homes of the people 
— all the homes — should be a chief concern of both church and 
State; for the existence of both depends, ultimately, upon their 
being really homes. 

Houses are built after endless patterns, of many materials, rich 
and poor ; but homes are fashioned by the spirits of those who live 
in them, out of certain qualities of the heart and mind. These 
materials are so far beyond price that their value cannot be stated 
in terms of money at all ; yet they are so abundant that the poorest 
and most ignorant folk may, with intelligent and loving help, acquire 
the most essential of them. But though not to be reckoned in 
terms of money, they are exceedingly costly: that is why so many 
people fail to have homes. They start one with no idea of what 
it requires ; and when they find that out they are unwilling to pay 
the price. Rich or poor — the rich even more than the poor, per- 
haps — men and women will repudiate their own pledges, leave the 
barely-started home to decay and ruin, and go into spiritual bank- 
ruptcy, before they will pay the honest debts they assumed to God, 
to the nation, and to future generations, in marrying and under- 
taking to build a home. 

Homes are built by the heart, the mind, and the will. Their 
materials are love, intelligence and character. But even these, the 
finest and most powerful of human possessions, need a physical 
foundation to build upon : fresh air, abundant water, cleanliness, 
sufficient privacy for decent living. In cities, the world over, these 
things are hard for the very poor to come by. That is the great 
sin of the privileged classes which they must repent of and atone 
for before we can have anywhere a really Christian civilization. 
Yet everywhere there are multitudes who lack these necessary 
foundations for a home who could get them, even now, if only they 
were helped and taught. Very much of the fine work done by 
Hampton and Tuskegee would have borne but poor fruit if they 
had not stood, always and everywhere, for these basal physical 
needs in the homes of the poor. You young people, to whom your 

69 



70 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

race must look for leadership, must never forget this. Cleanliness 
opens the way to both physical and moral health ; and when you can 
get the love of it into the hearts of the fathers and mothers of 
your poorest, real homes will be possible to them, if only they will 
pay the price. 

There are endless enrichments for a home as its owners' souls 
grow, and their minds: and these rich and beautiful homes are 
often found in very small, plain houses; just as a jewel may be 
placed in a golden box, or in one of velvet, or pasteboard. But 
these three things must be present in some degree for even the 
plainest beginnings of a home: love, intelligence, and character. 

Nothing ever spoken of by human tongues, in whatever language 
expressed, has been so abused, so misunderstood, so belittled, as 
love has been; and until people understand something of what love 
is, what it does, what it requires, a home is impossible to them. It 
is the first duty of the Church to show love to the world, and to 
show it whole ; to make it plain as exactly the same quality, whether 
given by God to us, or required by him from us to our fellows at 
large, or in our homes. Love is like oxygen, the breath of life: 
mix oxygen with one thing, and you get water, another essential 
of life; unite it with another, and you have heat, light, and power; 
with something else again, and there is granite, the framework 
of the world. Unite love with faith, worship and obedience, and 
it is what we give to God; with understanding of human needs 
and faults, and it is what we owe our fellows ; with the closest per- 
sonal needs and relations of individual men and women, and it is 
love in the home. But always and everywhere it is the same love, 
with the same essential quality: it seeks the good of the beloved, 
and never seeks itself. Nothing which seeks itself can possibly 
be love. 

To interpret love to the world, to set up its standards and live 
up to them, is the work of the Church ; but it is also preeminently 
the work of the world's women; and it will never be adequately 
done until women of all classes and all races stand together for 
this highest and strongest thing in human life. But even now each 
woman can do something toward setting those standards in other 
lives. One sees so many girls — girls of my race and girls of 
yours — whose behavior, even in public places, betrays that igno- 
rance and egotism which can ruin a home, but never build one. 

It is idle to say their mothers are to blame ; they were probably 
brought up the same way. It doesn't help to play the Pharisee 
and condemn people for what they don't know. But those who do 
know must teach, and live up to their teaching; and you, picked 
young women of your race, women with opportunities beyond your 
fellows, are bound by your every privilege to be light-bearers in 
your own lives, and light-bringers to your people. 

Some things must be faced squarely. A baby is born an animal, 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 71 

with, at first, only animal needs. But down in the animal is a 
seed of spirit intended to grow and send roots out through every 
atom of its animal nature, and draw every animal instinct up into 
food for the life of the spirit, into beauty and service and joy. 
The strongest animal things are the appetites ; for food, for drink, 
for replenishing the race. If we were only animals we could live 
for these things and yet be clean; God asks of animals no more. 

But if human beings are content with an animal's life they sink 
lower than any animal ever can — lower by just so much as they 
might have risen higher. 

A seed of wheat will draw on black dirt, decaying leaves and offal, 
and will transform them all into the beauty of waving grain and 
the service of food for men. Our spirits are to draw on our animal 
love of food and drink and so control and use it that our bodies 
shall be built up in strength and fitness for service : so will we be 
men and women, masters of our own desires, eating for love's sake ; 
not gluttons, drunkards, lower than any beast that lives. And the 
spirit is to draw on this other animal appetite, this thing which has 
in it no smallest touch of love, this basal attraction between men 
and women, this thing which, uncontrolled by love, wrecks souls 
and bodies and minds, and blasts and maims and tortures from one 
generation to another. The seed of spirit reaches down into that 
depth, and draws up the most beautiful thing on earth, the greatest 
power: for it crowns unselfishness in human life, and makes homes 
possible to men. 

But that crowning costs so much ! It means that we live no 
longer for ourselves. It means faithfulness, even though we are 
met with unfaith. It means the law of kindness on our tongues, 
no matter what unkindness fronts us. It means patience and 
gentleness, not just when they are easy, but when they are des- 
perately hard. The home-maker doesn't fight things down: she 
loves them down. It means firmness, too. When we ourselves 
obey the law of love — and only then — are we fit so to control 
children that they may obey it — it, not our angry wills, or brute 
strength and selfishness. I'm not talking theories. My mother had 
eight children. She never drew a well breath. When her younger 
children were little the war had brought her, for a time, the strain 
of unaccustomed poverty. But I never saw a frown on her face, 
nor heard an impatient tone in her voice. When my own children 
were born I knew we had tried her almost to distraction, often: 
I knew it by the way I felt inside myself. But I knew by her 
example that feelings can be kept inside, and never get into a 
mother's eyes or voice or acts. Children will obey and love a 
mother like that as they never will one who tries to rule them 
without ruling her own spirit. But love like that costs. How 
much, you will never know until you pay the price in your own 
life. 



^2 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

And the father has his share of the price of a home to pay. 
What can a mother do if all her love and sacrifice cannot protect 
her son from an example of uncleanness, ill-temper, laziness or 
drunkenness daily before his eyes? What can she do if she finds 
she has given her children a father who puts rottenness into their 
bodies instead of life? Girls should be taught that the men who 
do not approach them with respect, the men who seek any famil- 
iarity, any favors they would not be willing for all the world to 
know — that those men make homes impossible wherever they live, 
and are a curse to the women and children who must live with 
them. 

Getting married is no holiday matter. Compliments and flattery 
die a quick and natural death ; and the two young people must face 
a lifetime round of work and sacrifice which has daily to be ac- 
cepted and lived up to if they are ever to build a home. It is so 
difficult and strenuous a task that many who finally succeed bril- 
liantly with it would fail but for their children. It isn't always 
easy for different natures to adjust themselves to one another, even 
where there is true love between them ; often they must fall back on 
the need of love in the children's lives, bearing with one another in 
time of stress for the sake of happiness other than their own. 
But if they will do that long enough, they will find at last that their 
love for one another, though it may have been strained to the 
breaking point, has so grown through patience, and in understand- 
ing and sympathy, that it stands immortal, unchangeable, strong for 
time and for eternity. 

So love is the great thing: the power which quickens that seed 
of spirit in us, and makes it live and grow. We live by love if 
we ever really live at all; and we build by love if we ever build 
a home. But we must choose love; choose to cleave to it, choose 
to be loyal to it even when we have no feeling of love in our hearts. 
We all lose the feeling of love sometimes, especially when we are 
young ; and that is where the will comes in in building a home. It 
steadies us, and keeps us true to the best we know, regardless of how 
we feel. 

And one thing more is needed for a home: intelligence. The 
most tragic tragedies of life are those caused by ignorant, incom- 
petent affection. We have all seen families where a blind and 
foolish love has been as deadly to the children in it as hate itself. 
That is where so much of the work of educated, privileged men 
and women must lie — in bringing knowledge to help love in the 
homes of loving, ignorant folk. 

It can be done through example, as you build real homes of your 
own ; and by winning friends among the unprivileged of your peo- 
ple. If education builds a wall around us to separate us from the 
ignorant we'd better not have an education. Privileges are for 
service; used selfishly they kill joy in the heart. 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 73 

Many of you will be teachers; and there could be no better en- 
trance into homes than that. But we all teach far more by what 
we are than by what we say ; and if the two teachings clash what 
we are always carries the day. 

Many of you will marry and have sons. Set yourselves from the 
beginning so to rear them that when they are men a woman's hap- 
piness will be safe in their hands. Send out sons fit to be heads 
of homes. Do not leave them unprotected, to be poisoned by foul- 
ness before they know right from wrong. Do not let clean things 
be made unclean to them. When they ask questions, answer them 
purely: don't leave them to learn in the street. Give them real 
homes to live in, and hold before them the homes they will one day 
help to make, and the need for cleanness, strength, and honor in 
those homes. 

All of you should work for the homes of your people through 
the Church. I think the higher schools ought to prepare students 
to do more efficient work in the churches. Trained teachers are 
needed in the Sunday schools; teachers to whom God's word is 
a living reality, and who can make it a living reality to others. 
Leaders are needed, too, for women's home mission work, to bring 
all of privilege and opportunity that the better classes have into 
the service of those who lack. 

But the work of women for boys is largely ended when the boys 
reach earlier adolescence. From that time on they need men for 
friends and leaders. It is the pastor's duty to look after these 
growing boys ; to bring them in touch with the best and strongest 
young men in the Church and in the Y. M. C. A. You young 
men who are barely through with being boys yourselves must take 
this riot of young life, now uncared-for, and discipline and develop 
it with clean and happy thoughts and play and work. 

We white people want to help, more and more of us. We do 
begin to see that our basal human needs, for health and training 
and work and play and love and ideals we have in common with 
you and all mankind. Our hearts are turning to serve you, for 
the sake of our common humanity and our common Christ. The 
next few years, I thankfully believe, will see a great widening of 
the doors of opportunity for all your people for hopeful, health- 
ful, happy life ; and it is we of the white race who must widen 
those doors and cooperate with you more privileged Negroes for 
the uplift of your race. Yet as we open the doors it is you who 
must enter in. It is the black people who will lift the mass of the 
black race. The most that we can do is to remove the obstacles 
our indifference has created or allowed, to see that you are properly 
equipped, to give you our sympathy, our prayers, our faith, our 
cooperation where you need it: but the work is yours. And be- 
cause that work must begin and continue in your people's homes, 
because the standards of their homes will be the test and the meas- 



74 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

ure of your failure or your success, you must set your own home 
standards, your standards of behavior for young unmarried folk, 
your standards of honor and sacrifice, high — as high as Jesus 
Christ's. 

And don't be afraid of the cost. There isn't any easy way into 
the hearts of those about you, into power to serve and bless. Just 
set your faces toward love; and let what will come, come. There 
are just two things we can do with our lives : God leaves the choice 
with each of us. The grain of wheat can abide by itself, intact, 
unfruitful, unblessed; or it can fall into the ground and die. But 
it isn't the life in it that dies ; that rises in new abundance : it is 
just the shell that dies — that hard outer husk which prisons life 
and hinders it, shutting it in from opportunity and fulfillment. 

It is so with us. We are afraid of that death of self; and it 
does hurt while the dying goes on. But don't be afraid of it: 
trust God, and stick it out. Some day the little green blades of 
joy will rise out of your heart into sunshine, and roots of love will 
reach down to make life out of all the dead, unlovely things within 
you ; and you will find that the only thing which died in you was 
that hard husk of selfishness, which died to set life free. 



EVIL CONDITIONS IN CITY HOMES AND THE LARGER 

RESPONSIBILITY 

A. M. TRAWICK, 

Nashville, Tenn., Secretary in the Social Service Division, International Com- 
mittee of the Young Men's Christian Association, Student Department. 

In the United States there are, according to the Thirteenth 
Census, a grand total of 9,827,763 persons classed as Negroes. 
Eighty-nine per cent, of this number, or 8,749,427 representatives 
of the race, have their home in the Southern States. Twenty-nine 
and two-tenths per cent, of the total population in the South is 
Negro, while only five-tenths per cent, is of European or Asiatic 
extraction. It is with sufficient reason, therefore, that the prob- 
lem of Negro Home Life is lifted into the plane of separate dis- 
cussion, because the number of families justifies it, and racial par- 
ticipation in the achievements of progress makes it imperative. 

Negroes share in the economic life of the South in varying 
degrees of fullness ; some advancing with the progress of the Na- 
tion, some failing under the stress of heavy burdens, and some 
making no advance under conditions which others are prompt to 
seize. It is not possible to summarize the eight and three-quarter 
millions of Negroes under one general character, for in that vast 
nimiber there are all the diversities of human spirit and human 
activity. There are among them about a quarter of a million men 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 75 

and women of professional and business life who may be ranked 
as independents. The majority of this group are graduates and 
former students of the 132 institutions in the South for the higher 
education of Negroes, while a respectable minority of them have 
never received educational training above that offered by the pub- 
lic schools. There is a group of working people numbering approx- 
imately 1,200,000 men and women who are skilled artisans, semi- 
skilled workers and domestic servants. The members of this group 
are more or less prosperous, aggressive, ambitious and respected, 
and many of them are on the way to an independent life in the years 
to come. There is a third group, the most numerous of all, aggre- 
gating not less than 6,000,000 souls, some of whom are emerging 
into a life of larger respectability, and many of whom are a people 
" behind the veil " impenetrable to the average of their white neigh- 
bors. From this group are drawn the hired laborers on the farm 
and in the city, the hired " hands " who perform much of the 
South's uncongenial toil, and the washer-women who emerge out 
of the darkness for an hour and disappear again into it until the 
task is completed.* 

LACK OF PROPER HOME LIFE AMONG NEGROES 

The last available census bulletins reveal the fact that there are 
330,000 Negro families in their own homes. There are also 1,200,- 
000 other families living in rented homes, and 114,000 marked by 
census enumerators as *' Unknown." A fact does not change its 
significance simply because it is discovered to be a fact bearing upon 
Negro life, and for that reason it would be contrary to the truth 
to assert that Negro home life in a rented house is of necessity 
incomplete, unsatisfactory and unprogressive. Concerning these 
rented houses we must know something further than the bare fact 
that the ownership lies in some other than the occupant before 
we can arrive at a just estimate of the ideals ruling the home. We 
must know some of the things lacking in the houses of approxi- 
mately 6,000,000 Negroes, which an advancing civilization declares 
are necessary to the attainment of best home life. We must know 
also the inevitable reaction of intimate neighborhood upon the grow- 
ing members of the human family, and from these premises we 
must draw our inferences touching a greater social obligation. 

For the present, therefore, we exclude from our view the two 
million or more Negroes who are progressing in their family life 
in harmony with the ideals of an enlarging civilization and center 
our attention upon the unprogressive members of the population. 
In order to make this discussion clear, we confine our attention to 
that limited portion of Negro families who have their living in the 
alleys, back yards and in minor streets of Southern cities. Resi- 

* These estimates are taken from a discussion in " Inter-Racial Problems " 
by Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, and are considered accurate enough for the purpose. 



y^ THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

dences in back yards having their entrances through neighboring 
alleys and in minor streets, have little advantage over the alley in 
matters of sanitation, light, police protection and general desirabil- 
ity. Hence we shall not be misunderstood if we employ the term 
" alley residence " to signify the average rented quarters of poor 
Negroes in our cities. Let us bear in mind throughout this dis- 
cussion that we are dealing with only a fraction of Southern Ne- 
groes in cities. 

THE THINGS THAT ARE LACKING 

The houses which a million families of Negroes occupy present 
one dominant physical character; they are not adapted to a twen- 
tieth-century civilization. All ideals of comfort, safety and progress 
are excluded before the family enters. There are three types of 
these structures, all of them equally successful in the production 
of failure. The first type is the little separate house or shack built 
of cheapest material, chosen because of the Negro's inability to live 
elsewhere. The second type is the old building formerly occupied 
by a different class of residents and now given over to Negroes, 
who demand little in the matter of repairs and improvements. The 
third type is the tenement house, accommodating from three to 
thirty families, providing one or two rooms for each family, and 
offering all the occupants one porch, one water supply and one 
toilet for their common use. This type of house is facetiously 
called the " gun barrel," " Noah's Ark " and similar names. New 
buildings conform in general to these prevailing types, and except 
in cases where improved housing ordinances are enforced, deteriora- 
tion is rapid and the new is but little more desirable than the old. 

In these houses there is uniform failure to provide adequate space 
for family living. It is not unusual to find five, six or more per- 
sons in two rooms. The kitchen is also dining room, bedroom and 
workroom. Articles of furniture are beds, tables, stoves and a few 
chairs. Very few are the wardrobes, clothes closets, wash-stands 
and dressers. Boarders and lodgers often share some part of a 
two-room space with a family of four. These rooms have no 
running water, either hot or cold ; and no sinks, water closets, bath 
tubs, and refrigerators. What is a home without brooms, towels, 
napkins, needles, thimbles, sewing machine and implements to pre- 
pare, cook and serve food? In hundreds of Negro homes in South- 
ern cities there are none of these things, and the accessories of civ- 
ilization, such as pictures, rugs, window-shades, bed sheets, pillow 
cases and tablecloths are not among the rewards of a day's search. 
Children are crowded away from the table, and, for their sustenance, 
they eat at irregular hours anything they can find in the house or 
out of it. They are crowded out of the beds, and, to accommodate 
strangers, they sleep on the floor without mattresses, covering or 
change of clothing. The entire family is scarcely together during 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 77 

waking hours, and there is no council between parents and chil- 
dren, no reading around a table, no asking and answering ques- 
tions, no story-telling or games, no singing, no cultivation of habits 
or manners, no prayers with the family and no giving thanks at 
meals. 

But what does the neighborhood offer better than the house itself 
provides? To escape from the repulsive interior the members of 
the household emerge into an alley or yard filled with garbage, 
ashes, stagnant water and decaying animal carcasses. The narrow 
yards perform in some respects indeed a better function than the 
open court or air shaft of large tenement districts. They have more 
sunlight and fresh air than can be claimed by the tenement dweller, 
but little else of advantage can be claimed for them. In the yards 
are the vaults, water closets, wood and coal houses, pig-styes, 
poultry pens, garbage cans and water supply. The toilets are the 
most primitive, indecent and unsanitary affairs that can be imag- 
ined. One such outdoor toilet, without water connection, is often 
the only provision for a tenement of thirty families, or for all the 
houses on an alley for the length of a city block. Screens, door- 
locks or concealed passage ways are practically unknown, and 
although this pollution of our city life affects health, morals, intel- 
ligence and family integrity, there is no city in the South that has 
adequately dealt with it. With monotonous regularity all the other 
outhouses on the premises present a condition of deterioration, bad 
repair and sanitary neglect. 

These conditions are matters belonging not to one family alone, 
but to an entire city block, an entire street, a district given over 
to the least prosperous of the population. If children of the neigh- 
borhood congregate to play, they have their games over garbage 
piles, around surface closets, in and out of abandoned outhouses, 
through a rank growth of weeds, in the slimy filth of an open 
sewer, and over the carcasses of animals that the rain has not 
washed away. As a matter of simple fact, Negro children in this 
station of life do not play in the full, free, joyous sense of the 
word. They express their instincts more satisfactorily by fighting 
than by playing. The boys huddle about some abandoned spot 
and spend hours in a stooping posture over a game of craps, or 
in the corner of an abandoned building they pass on the suggestions 
which their indecent surroundings have brought to their mind. 
The girls who do not enter early into domestic service have 
abundant leisure, but no play. Pitifully few dolls or playthings 
of any description are to be found among them. They have no 
room at home for games, parties, make-believe housekeeping, or 
childhood fancies. Their toys, if they have any, are rescued from 
garbage heaps, and their years are spent in idleness without con- 
structive amusement. They hear the unprofitable conversation of 
their elders, and fill the vacant time with still more vacant wander- 



78 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

ings from one unattractive spot to another. It is scarcely possible 
to imagine anything more pathetic than the complete absence of 
play in the lives of Negro children w^ho inhabit city alleys. For 
them is no story hour, no visits to parks, theaters, museums or 
libraries ; no eager, bounding, self-directed sport ; no sharing in the 
physical hilarity that makes American youth the wonder and delight 
of the nation. 

For adults, the house offers nothing more satisfactory than it 
gives to the children. The Negro man or w^oman cannot sit on 
the porch, where there is one, nor walk in the yard, nor visit a 
neighbor's house, without gazing constantly at vaults, washtubs full 
of soapy water, pig-styes and refuse heaps. The contamination of 
sights, sounds and odors, is as pervasive as the atmosphere and 
there is no escape from it. The parks, boulevards and shady streets ; 
the conservatories, picture galleries and libraries; the theaters, 
amusement halls, restaurants and hotel lobbies are forbidden lands, 
guarded at every approach by flaming swords. The alley Negro, 
having achieved nothing, is turned back by his own helplessness 
to fester and decay in the rubbish from which he is impotent to 
rescue himself. 

Neighborhood is largely a matter of spiritual geography. It is 
possible for the strong, dominant personalities to transcend the 
limits of the street and the restraints of physical location. But 
the number of dominant spirits who are not subject to immediate 
environment is exceedingly small, and our obligation, after all, is 
not to the strong alone, but to the weak and those who all their 
lives are under the charm of what they see and hear and touch in 
daily contact. It is an inspiration to the whole world to know 
that Sheppard, the Negro Missionary to Africa, Fellow of the 
Royal Geographical Society, and city mission pastor, came from a 
family of delinquents, and that Cave Hill, Louisville, has sent to 
Hampton Institute a young man who promises to be a leader in 
the intellectual and moral life of his people. Such examples, praise- 
worthy as they are and powerful in giving stimulus to other strug- 
gling lives, do not remove the obligation from the strong to bear 
the burdens of the weak. It is still true that the majority of the 
human family are molded by the things they see, guided by the 
things they hear, and dominated by the things they touch. To say 
they are weak does not disprove the fact that the general tone of 
life may be improved and many individuals lifted into careers of 
great usefulness by the purification of neighborhood contact. 

THE UNAVOIDABLE PRESSURE OF NEIGHBORHOOD 

The reality pressing upon life gives form and direction to its 
ideals. Experience is the basis of dreams, the substratum upon 
which ambitions are erected. The past is projected into the future, 
and the possible is determined by the actual. The standard which 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 79 

even the best of men set for themselves is built up of material 
already possessed by the memory and conscience. For the majority 
of human beings, ideals are sobered by actual attainment rather 
than brightened by hopes of the impossible. It is not easy to trans- 
plant a wholly new standard of conduct while the facts of life and 
the testimony of the senses strike hard upon unchanging forces. 
Said an old Negro when a new mode of life was presented to him: 
" I never allow myself to want what I know I cannot get." 

This dependence of ambition upon reality renders improvement 
of Negro home life both difficult and encouraging. It is difficult 
because life for many has continued so long under depressing cir- 
cumstances that desire is atrophied and imagination has no con- 
quest to work upon. It is encouraging because a change of material 
facts, combined with patient guidance and living illustrations of 
success, does actually produce new results in motive and effort. 
The problem has begun to disappear when living examples of suc- 
cess are made common in every Negro neighborhood. 

It is not a peculiar race characteristic that makes Negro home 
life a hard problem for society to solve. The call of race is im- 
perative in such matters as personal association, social groupings 
and family integrity, and is evident among Negroes just as it is 
among Jews, Anglo-Saxons, Asiatics or any other division of human 
kind. Negroes will move into an alley and live among other Ne- 
groes just for the same reason that Syrians will occupy one tene- 
ment and Italians another. It is, perhaps, true also that Negroes 
will be forced into more complete segregation than the members 
of any other race because of the ever present racial antipathy against 
their freedom of intermingling. But there is no evidence whatever 
that dirt, disorder and indecency are the products of Negro race 
selection. A Negro lives in an unsanitary, dilapidated hut or over- 
crowded tenement in a malodorous alley, not because of race 
tendence moving in that realm of physical perversion, but because 
that shelter is the best that is expected of him or made possible for 
him. He has been taught that his wage earnings make no better 
home possible, and that his value as a citizen requires nothing 
higher of him. He moves in that realm because he accepts the 
common estimate upon his own manhood, and he confines his fam- 
ily to that limiting environment because he expects nothing more 
of his children than that they should follow in his footsteps. 

When we consider how all the senses are assaulted by the ma- 
terial things that spring out of the alley, we cannot marvel that 
so large a number of Negroes are backward in appropriating the 
better gifts of civilization. There is nothing to look u])on to sug- 
gest beauty, order or conformity to law. Everything is present to 
teach the law of confusion and the fact of failure. Dirt, trash 
and filth have acquired the supremacy and from earliest infancy 
the eyes gaze upon an arrangement of things that indicate in- 



8o THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

decency, incompetency and the dependence of spirit upon matter. 
The sounds that first awaken the mind are discordant, repellant, 
irritating and produce the reaction of despair, discontent and in- 
abihty to master the forces that are displeasing. The odors are 
foul, insistent, adhesive and corrupting; the touch is evasive and at 
the same time intimate; repellant but at the same time hypnotic. 
The taste is compounded of all the other senses that annoy the 
memory and stupefy the imagination. Residence in the alley or in 
neglected minor streets supplies all the elements that offend against 
every human sense. 

The effects of this persistent invasion of the avenues of the 
soul are not doubtful or long delayed. The volition is weakened, 
the sentiment is perverted, and the moral standards erected out 
of the only material at hand. It is impossible to say to what ex- 
tent our idea of a moral life grows out of the facts which con- 
stantly confront us ; but every father or mother with ambitions 
for their children's welfare shun, as they would contamination it- 
self, the influences that work deterioration of the physical senses. 
The material world is a companion and prototype of the moral 
world. Disorder in the physical world has its counterpart in dis- 
obedience, trash passes over into license, discord has its answer in 
inattention ; reeking filth has its reaction in careless and degenerate 
habits. Beauty is an aid to morality and ugliness is a stimulant of 
vice. 

The alley as a place of residence is an evidence of a good thing 
gone wrong. It is a necessary part of the structure of a city, and 
has its justification in the convenience of family life in city blocks, 
and in the demands of commercial activity. To meet its true pur- 
pose the alley must be maintained as a part of our sanitary and 
police system, as a means of protection against fire and as a pre- 
ventive of land overcrowding. But when we allow the alley to 
be diverted from its good uses and to become a place of residence, 
we destroy the good it may do and turn it into a culture tube of 
disease, ignorance and immorality. 

As a social influence, the alley becomes through neglect the chief 
promoter of contagion and physical degeneracy. It claims its retri- 
bution in infant mortality and general debility throughout the homes 
of the more cultured and the more highly privileged. It scatters 
its poison over the paved street and boulevard, and demonstrates 
the fact that there is no denying the truth of social unity. It 
teaches three important lessons in the realm of social ethics. First : 
the city has allowed an evil thing to exist, and individual life is 
therefore surrounded by permissible evil things. By so much as 
the city lowers its standards in the maintenance and use of the 
alleys, by so much also will life along its forgotten length be marked 
by lowered moral standards. Second: The city encourages the 
inhabitants of the alley in the evil habit of covering unsightly and 



1 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 8l 

disagreeable things, which they attempt to do by building fences 
around unsightly yards, training vines or piling fresh rubbish on 
top of decaying heaps. The ordinary " clean up " day, of which 
so much boast is made in some cities, results in nothing more in 
Negro alleys than covering up a few of the most hideous sights. 
All this is civic insincerity, and leads to the pernicious individual 
habit of concealing vices rather than removing them. Third: 
Along the alley many other evil things are shamelessly exposed and 
no value whatever is placed upon a decent self-restraint and a 
regard for the welfare of others. This leads to a contempt for 
one's own best sentiments and a supreme disregard of them in 
others. 

Many Negroes who are compelled to live in the alley (and it 
is only to that fraction of the city population that this description 
applies), seek to avoid its contamination by moving from house to 
house and from one alley to another. Repeated experiences of fail- 
ure to improve conditions lead to the conclusion that improvement 
is impossible, and out of failure comes the persuasion that the 
material world, not the spirit of man, is the master. 

Many have supposed that the migratory habit of Negroes is a 
race characteristic, and have condemned it as a cause of their fail- 
ure in making better homes. It is, on the contrary, more nearly 
the truth to say that their failure to make a home that satisfies is 
the productive cause of their restlessness. The habit is almost 
entirely absent in the lives of those Negroes who have built a 
home with some standards of culture possible in it. The failure 
of many so-called " plantation experiments " has resulted in no 
small degree from the unwillingness of plantation owners to encour- 
age living on property which the Negroes could buy and claim for 
their own and improve as their ability increased. 

Life in the only house available for the Negro has produced in 
him a degrading sense of his own personal power and worth. The 
alley has conquered those who live upon it, and out of many con- 
flicts there has come an apathy that accepts life as a thing detached 
from success, mastery and abiding pleasure. There is no guaran- 
tee that the Negro will be a complete moral man simply because 
he lives in a clean, comfortable, separate house, for no one holds 
that economic or material independence is of itself a sufficient re- 
generating agency. But the moral appeal is stronger when hope 
is alive. There is little hope in the midst of filth, indecency and 
overcrowding. 

Upon organized society falls the first obligation to remove the 
stone from the sepulcher of buried human ambition and self- 
respect. The alley is a social product, and the alley's putrifying 
humanity is an indictment of society's trustworthiness. 

In this discussion we recognize clearly that only a limited num- 
ber of families is involved and that they are confined to the cities; 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

but their number is sufficiently large to justify a distinct appeal 
for community righteousness on their behalf. We recognize also 
that a remedy for the deplorable conditions lies within reach of a 
regenerated social neighborhood, and that wherever the submerged 
members of our human society have the offer of a better family 
life under favorable circumstances, they respond to it in a way 
to rejoice the heart of every true friend of human respectability. 

THE LARGER RESPONSIBILITY 

Without society, there is no personality, and without definite com- 
munity action combined with the purpose and effort of the in- 
dividual there can be no permanency of personal character. Fur- 
thermore, the progress of any people is aided or retarded in direct 
proportion to the deliberate effort of all society to improve the 
family life of the people. If this effort is sporadic or half-hearted, 
progress will be slow, for there is no possible improvement in any 
realm of life that can act as a substitute for the well being of fam- 
ilies. With family life rendered safe, satisfactory and progressive, 
according to the demands of our best civilization, Negroes will not 
really require society to do anything else for them which they can- 
not do for themselves. Without this improvement, Negroes will 
not really be any better for anything else society may do for them, 
or for anything else they may do for themselves. 

It is, therefore, the purpose of the latter part of this paper to dis- 
cuss a few of the duties that fall upon corporate society in build- 
ing among all Negroes a fixed idea of permanent home life. 

The sense of duty must be enlarged to embrace the relation of 
owners and agents to the occupants of their property. The first 
responsibility is not, as too many landlords have supposed, to col- 
lect rents ; but in an enlightened age, it can be nothing less than to 
provide houses in which the best family ideals may flourish and 
become permanent. It is wholly anti-social and unpatriotic for a 
landlord to say : " I force no one to live in one of my houses. If 
a man chooses to live there, it is his own affair, but I shall see 
that he pays his rent." Such a policy is the immediate cause of 
family degeneracy, and its underlying assumption is that the chief 
business of man is his own prosperity. The bond of union be- 
tween landlord and tenant is most intimate and vital, and has be- 
come thoroughly incorporated in the sentiment of advancing civ- 
ilization through the ravages produced by the evils of " absentee 
landlordism." The landlord who lives on the boulevard and drives 
to his business in an automobile, the possession of which is made 
possible by his investments in Negro house property, is as much 
an absentee landlord as though he lived in a distant State or in a 
nation across the seas. For the health, morals, safety and happi- 
ness of the inmates of his house, such a landlord feels no solici- 
tude, and for the further development of the family he acknowl- 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 83 

edges no concern. In the pleasures of his own home Hfe he is 
entitled to the rewards of a quiet conscience only if he has refused 
to establish his own house out of the ruins of his dependent neigh- 
bor's happiness. No one demands that every house a landlord rents 
to tenants shall be equal in all respects to the one he himself occu- 
pies, but the advancing social sentiment of the nation is right in 
demanding that the houses provided for family living shall be of 
such a character, in such a state of repair and in such a neighbor- 
hood of physical decency as shall make possible at least a fighting 
chance for satisfaction and orderly progress. Failing in this, land- 
lords and their agents may in no wise escape the judgment that 
they have wrecked human happiness for profit and turned the 
necessities of their neighbors to their own advantage. 

An enlarged sense of duty falls upon the makers of law, and 
upon the officers and administrators of law. As an expression of 
corporate conscience, law is an invaluable agent in national progress 
and has an authoritative voice in deciding the relations men shall 
sustain to one another. Thomas Jefferson, out of regard to the 
will of the people expressing itself for its own good, declared that 
the purpose of government was to restrain men from injuring one 
another. That principle states one half of the truth, and the great 
Democrat recognized its inadequacy before his life-work was accom- 
plished. The supplementary and far more important half of the 
truth declares the purpose of government to be to assist men in 
doing good one to another. Direct and specific legislation for social 
order is one of the most illustrious declarations of the corporate 
power, for to do good is always more profitable than to prevent 
evil. 

An inspection of the legislation designed to strengthen the family 
life of the nation discloses three faults of construction. The first 
is a lack of a clear, accurate definition of the terms wdiich the law 
selects to express its will. Many cities have ordinances sufficient 
to secure adequate regulation of housing matters if the laws in 
specific terms set a standard of explanation for its own requirements. 
Such phrases are constantly recurring in municipal ordinances as 
" good sanitary conditions," " clean premises," " fit for human habi- 
tation," " good repair," " adequate water supply," " dangerous to 
health and morals," " nuisance " ; but in the absence of a previously 
declared standard by which these expressions arc to be understood, 
their interpretation is left to individual judgment. Even where 
inspectors are required to take these matters under advisement, there 
is no standard by which the qualifications of the inspector are to 
be determined. 

The second defect is in the inconsistencies of the law. Thor- 
oughly good enactments are often nullified or their evasion made 
easy by qualifying phrases or exceptions which to the law-makers 
may have been clearly justifiable, but to the of^cers and adminis- 



84 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

trators give ample opportunity for failure. A room, for example, 
is declared by a city law to be " overcrowded " if each occupant 
who sleeps in the room is not afforded six hundred cubic feet of 
air space. The inspector is required to remedy this condition if 
he deems it prudent or necessary. The purpose of the law is to 
guarantee every man an adequate supply of pure air while he is 
asleep, but it provides no basis for the prudent and necessary judg- 
ment of the inspector. Hence, overcrowding is an ever present 
evil. Again, the law of a certain city says that a habitable room 
" shall be in every part not less than eight feet in height from 
floor to ceiling, and shall have at least one window of not less than 
twelve feet square, opening directly upon the street or yard, except 
an attic room." Inasmuch as many thousand rooms upstairs in 
separate houses, new and old, in tenement and boarding houses are 
constantly occupied, although they do not conform to these meas- 
urements, the effect of this ordinance is as though it read : " No 
room with a low ceiling and an insufficient door or window shall 
be deemed habitable except an upstairs room that is built that 
way." It is not a sufficient answer to this inconsistency to argue 
that three hundred cubic feet of good air is better than six hun- 
dred feet of impure air, or that attic rooms with narrow doors and 
" bull's eye " windows have always been slept in by poor Negroes 
and other people. The point of the discussion is that the law at- 
tempts on the one hand to secure healthful conditions for people 
who sleep in a room, and on the other hand effectually destroys its 
own provisions. 

A third defect of the law is its omission. Clear, unmistakable 
and consistent regulations touching certain realms of life are ren- 
dered useless and impracticable because of the total absence of 
legislation upon related subjects. For illustration, the law in a 
given community specifies that no surface toilet shall be located 
within ten feet of any part of a dwelling; but it fails to specify a 
maximum per cent, of ground space the dwelling may occupy. The 
law concerning the location of toilets gives way before the desire 
to utilize ground space, and as a result surface toilets are found 
to be three feet from the house, and, in some instances, adjoining 
the porch. The law in many places declares it to be a misdemeanor 
for occupants of a house to go into neighboring premises to obtain 
hydrant water, but it fails to require owners and agents to make 
connections with city mains. The result is that houses all over 
the South are rented at a profit, and the occupants are expected to 
steal all the water they use. The law, therefore, through its omis- 
sions, demonstrates its own helplessness. As in currency a debased 
coinage drives out a better, so in social legislation a debilitated 
ordinance destroys a valuable one. 

Defective legislation is only a part of the problem. Social laws 
are the most difficult to bring to a state of perfection in complex 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 85 

modem life, and the easiest to fall into disuse. Eternal vigilance 
is the price of social law enforcement. Some illustrations of re- 
peated violations are pertinent. An ordinance declares : " The 
roof of every house shall be kept in good repair so as not to leak." 
Houses are occupied all of the year with roofs in such a state of 
unrepair that, when it rains, the occupants move about from corner 
to corner to evade the downpour, and place buckets and washtubs 
on the beds to catch " running water." " Leaving any dead car- 
casses or any part thereof on any of the streets, lanes or alleys " 
is declared an ofifense. In an alley, in the city having this specific 
law, this writer saw six carcasses of full grown hens in the space 
of fifty feet, and in another twelve dead dogs between two main 
streets. Every law bearing upon housing, sanitation, health, com- 
fort and decency are openly disregarded and inspectors are among 
those who care little about everyday violations. 

The city must standardize its housing laws, and must instruct the 
people in their value. No law that any city has ever devised has 
been competent to transform an alley into a desirable place for 
human habitation, and no law, however skillfully drawn and how- 
ever enforced, will work that transformation. The difficulty is 
inherent in the alley itself. It was not designed as a place of resi- 
dence, and its use for such purposes must be forbidden, if family 
life is ever to be the first consideration of the city. 

The office of inspector of houses is a most important one in the 
life of progressive cities, and it should be dignified into a life-calling 
for capable young men. As an appointment for political aspirants 
it is a failure, for by such a use it becomes merely the stepping-stone 
to a higher office. But as a life-calling it becomes an expression of 
a man's gifts of usefulness. One who is able to look upon the 
house as a basis of the family and to look upon the evils of bad 
housing as so many sins attaching to the nation's family life, is able 
to bring to this task an ambition to declare the will of God in the 
home life of the people. Our social laws will never be enforced 
until the political office-holder is removed to make place for a man 
with a life-mission. There is no reason why student men from our 
Negro colleges should not be officially appointed as inspectors of 
housing conditions among their people. 

Many improvements in the living conditions of families are pos- 
sible with the forces now at hand in the life of the city. Police 
officers are a great unused power in the attainment of progress. 
In addition to their recognized duties, policemen should be experts 
in sanitation, neighborhood cleanliness and housing inspection. 
They have time for this work and the opportunities are everywhere 
present. The service of policemen in preventing disease, checking 
immoral tendencies and enlarging the ideals of family life would be 
as much to the credit of the city as arresting offenders and con- 
trolling street traffic. 



86 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

We cannot neglect this opportunity to utter a word on behalf 
of social training as a necessary part of the preparation of all who 
hold office in city administration. Without a social sense and a 
social conscience no man ought to be deemed fit to hold any office 
in the government of an American city. Through definite social 
training, the mayor, attorney-general, health officer, commissioners, 
policemen, sanitary inspector and police judge become a unified 
agency in building up the family life of all the people. 

The churches must recognize their share of responsibility in ad- 
vancing the ideals of family life among Negroes. The churches 
for white people in the South must solemnly and seriously assume 
their obligation to Negro churches. 

Negro preachers should be invited to join the white pastors' 
associations, and visits should be exchanged between the denomi- 
national organizations of white and Negro pastors. At these meet- 
ings the question of family life should be among the topics of dis- 
cussion and Negro pastors should be expected to give their views 
frankly and freely in the presence of their white co-laborers. 
Negro preachers have an influence over their congregations tre- 
mendously stronger than white pastors have over theirs, and this 
influence cannot be overlooked when corporate action is sought for 
the improvement of the home life. 

Negro churches should stimulate greater activity in the matter 
of home ownership and family organization. The question of in- 
efficiency, homelessness, non-support, desertion, divorce, remar- 
riage without divorce and promiscuous mingling in families should 
be dealt with as moral problems, for they are questions of moral 
life just as certainly as questions of social relationship. 

The remedy for the evils of divorce and desertion is to be found 
not in the court room, but in the cultivation of ideals and sentiments 
of men and women who unite to establish a home. The basis of 
enduring home life is found only in mutual love, respect and for- 
bearance. Until families are based on those eternal principles, it 
will continue to be the common, every day thing to have family life 
destroyed by desertion, divorce and remarriage without divorce. 
Sermons upon these cardinal facts are much more needed than 
much of the thundering emptiness that passes for preaching in 
some churches. 

Some Negro churches with which this writer is definitely ac- 
quainted are pursuing as wise and constructive a course as any of 
the churches for white people in the land. Their purpose and re- 
sults ought to fire the ambition of every church for Negroes in all 
our cities and small towns. An expensive brick church, with pipe 
organ, cushioned pews, carpeted floors, and stained glass windows, 
offers an unsurpassed opportunity to build up the family life of its 
neighborhood. But when a church is located in a neighborhood 
where 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 87 

" The filthy by-lane rings to the yell of the trampled wife, 
And chalk and alum and plaster are sold to the poor for bread, 
And the Spirit of Murder walks in the very means of life," 

and has no eyes to see the family degradation, no ears to hear the 
horrible blasphemies, and no voice to lift against the idleness, 
promiscuity and degeneracy rampant in its neighboring back yards, 
it proves, by this sign, that it is a church blind and deaf and dumb 
to its human responsibility. When five such churches antagonize 
each other in two adjoining city blocks where these family condi- 
tions are visible from every front door and every open window, it 
is a sign that their faith is dead, being destitute of works. In 
every city and town in the South we have too many elaborate 
churches and in their intimate neighborhood too many poverty 
smitten houses. It is no longer satisfying to an awakening con- 
science to point to the large enrollment of church members as a 
proof of Negro religious life; the final testimony of a people's 
religious stability is an aggressive spirit that captures for righteous 
living the high citadels of our civilization. 

The gravest of all our shortcomings in our contact with Negro 
families is lack of faith in their possible iinprovement. We have 
not been discouraged at our failure to assist them in the attain- 
ment of better standards, because our efforts in that direction have 
not been especially noticeable. Neither have we, on the other 
hand, been particularly alarmed because, as we supposed, there 
exist among us large numbers of people incapable of appropriating 
the best gifts of our civilization. The dominant character of our 
attitude has been an indifference, a lack of attention to the subject 
that stimulated faith in it. If a Negro rises above the general 
level and becomes a notable figure in the life of his people, a white 
man is willing to take the credit for helping him to attain his suc- 
cess. But if he remains where the accident of birth and social 
heritage left him, it is usual to ascribe his backwardness to " race 
character." This thought was illustrated recently when the writer 
was following some investigations in a city where Negroes out- 
numbered the white people. In conversation with a white gentle- 
man of prominence and wide influence, some of the facts concern- 
ing valuable improvements Negro families were making in their 
homes were brought to his attention. He replied : " I should not 
wonder if the white people in this city were at the bottom of it all." 
But when it was suggested that there were other entire streets and 
city blocks where his church could attempt still further improve- 
ments, he said : " Nature has not done much for the Negro ; about 
all we can do is to let him alone." The conversation then turned 
again upon the evident facts of progress in Negro families, and the 
gentleman finally declared : " I do not know very much about the 
Negro, although I have lived here all my life. I have been too 
busy to pay much attention to him." 



88 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

It is not fair to charge the white men of the South with hypoc- 
risy or deliberate self-deception in their attitude toward the Negro. 
Each of the remarks quoted above find lodgment in some minds 
when only a certain line of facts is deemed sufficient for general 
conclusion. All of these sentiments may exist simultaneously in 
one mind without conscious error in the argument. The average 
man of intelligence and business success is in the position indicated 
by the sentiment : " I do not know much about him." All the 
facts, good and bad, and all the forces, progressive and degenerate, 
at work in the fives of our Negro neighbor have not yet come to a 
high light in our social mind. The average Southern white man 
knows the Negro who works for him well enough to call him by his 
first name; but where he lives, how he lives, and how his family is 
adjusting its activity to the highest standards are not facts he has 
deemed it necessary to inquire into. When he is not sure of the 
first name, the easy familiarity between white and Negro justifies 
calling him " George," and that suffices. The Negro replies in the 
same spirit of cordiality : " All right, Cap'n." 

The sense of duty must be enlarged to include the claims of the 
Negro woman. The most helpless and the most neglected of all 
members of modem society is the woman who occupies the huts, 
shacks and tenements set apart for the Negro renters. For her 
there is no labor-saving machinery, no cultural development, no 
recreation, no human courtesy and kindly consideration. She is 
the burden bearer of both races, the drudge of her white neighbors 
and the toil-worn slave of her own house. She nurses the children 
of the white women while her own cry for attention. She washes 
the clothing of the white families while her own and her children's 
garments are habitually disregarded. She cooks and scours and 
sweeps and polishes, but not in her own house. The men of her 
race put a low estimate upon her because she toils until all her 
attractions are gone, but if she has a desire to adorn herself she is 
regarded by the white man as lawful spoil. She is worthy of honor 
but she receives little respect, she is entitled to the chivalry due to 
womanhood, but she bears shame and contempt and scorn. No 
standards are set for her conduct, and no categories are imperative 
when she is involved in them. The Negro woman bears the insults 
of gentlemen who do not consider their offenses a breach of gen- 
tlemanly breeding. Yet she is entitled to the courtesy and chivalry 
which womanhood claims as its unending heritage. Courtesy to 
woman is not a sentiment nor a custom. It is an attribute of 
character. 

Negro mothers and daughters, no matter how impoverished their 
lives or their cultural attainments, are worthy of respect and honor. 
It is a grievous mistake to presume that instincts of nobility have 
been eradicated from the lives that perform the lowly and servile 
tasks of society. In the writer's presence his washerwoman was 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 89 

once brutally upbraided by a white gentleman for the trivial offense 
of walking on the grass of his lawn. The woman's only comment 
upon the occurrence afterward was: " I am sorry I offended him. 
I guess it is just his disposition to speak as he did to me." The 
gentleness of that answer is proof of a disposition too delicate to 
return hatred for reviling. 

Is it the fear of social intermingling that prevents the display 
of ordinary courtesy to women who are Negroes? If so, it is 
more to be condemned for the contrary tendency which it stimu- 
lates. Contempt for a race has never achieved racial integrity, and 
will not prevent in the South intermingling of the most abandoned 
nature. It is only through respect for personality that any attain- 
ment of progress can be attained. The most stinging rebuke that 
can be administered to any man is to presume that the honor of 
his manhood is tainted because of his reverence for womanhood 
however low and humble the form in which it is manifested. With 
three college men, the writer went on a tour of observation through 
the section of a city occupied by the poorer and less ambitious 
Negroes. The group came upon a house whose exterior indicated 
a peculiar degree of poverty and cheerlessness. A woman in the 
rear yard was very willing to talk and to answer the questions put 
to her. She described her incessant toil, her failure to save any- 
thing against old age, and her dependence upon the wash tub for 
her daily sustenance. One of the group said : " We are greatly 
interested in the way all our neighbors live, and if you have no 
objections we should like to come into your house and talk with 
you further on what we have seen others accomplish in their house- 
keeping." The woman's manner changed instantly. She replied: 
" I have lived here all my life and know all about you white men. 
Go on about your business. I am sixty-seven years old and there 
is nobody here but me." The blush of shame that burned to the 
bone that group of college men came not because of any unworthy 
motive which brought them to the place. They were ashamed 
because the conduct of the white men who had been there before 
them made the insinuation easy and natural. 

It is a simple matter of fact that many hundreds of Negro women 
and girls in the South have never been spoken to by white men 
except in terms of indecency, and have never learned that civility 
and courtesy are the unfailing marks of superior culture. That 
there are men of highest culture and delicacy in the South is not 
even an open question, and they make it a point of honor to allow 
no exceptions to their honorable and high-minded conduct. But 
N^egro womanhood suffers at the hands of others whose code of 
honor stops short at the color line. 

In all that we have said touching society's Larger Responsibility, 
toward Negro Human Life, we have in mind the one sure founda- 
tion of all stability and progress, namely, the Bible, the Word of 



90 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

God, which endures forever. Man may build a house and keep it 
clean, but only God can build a home, and it is only in proportion 
to our appreciation of the Spirit of the Living God in our relations 
as parents, children and citizens, only in proportion as we release 
the power of God in our dealings with all men that we shall estab- 
lish a home competent to meet the demands of our present day 
civilization. 



THE MINISTRY 

The Call of the Christian Ministry 
Qualifications of the Minister 
Weaknesses of the Ministry 
Evangelism 



ll 



THE CALL OF THE CHRISTIAN PULPIT — AN APPEAL 
OF A NEGRO MINISTER TO NEGRO STUDENTS 

J. W. E. BOWEN, D.D., 

Atlanta, Ga., Professor Historical Theology, and Vice-president of Gammon 

Theological Seminary. 

It is customary for religious writers and theological professors 
in discussing the " Call " to the ministry to dwell almost exclusively 
upon the quality of the " Call " as distinct from the call to the 
other forms of service. The Church dare not surrender or modify 
her interpretation of the uniqueness and sacredness of the Call to 
the Ministry, an interpretation that places this call not upon mere 
convictions for service, or one that seeks opportunities for personal 
comfort, promotion or monetary compensation. This call has a 
divinity in it that shapes the ends of the lives of the " Called " ; it 
must lead to self surrender, self-emptying and possibly to self- 
immolation in service counting naught dear unto life that its minis- 
try may be fulfilled. 

Self-surrender is not a destruction of self ; destruction is suicidal, 
but it is total use of self in service, an abnegation of personal com- 
forts in the service of the Master for another. Let us turn our 
attention to the Call of the Christian pulpit to ascertain to whom 
is this call given ; its purpose and to what service the call points. 

The Christian pulpit stands in the highway of the Christian stu- 
dent, the man of brains, and beckons with outstretched hands and 
addresses in strong language these passers-by. The Pulpit calls 
for strong men ; men strong in their physical make-up ; strong in 
their intellectual cast of mind ; strong in their spiritual temper. 

P>e not deceived, a strong man physically is not necessarily one 
of large bones or towering frame or iron muscle. Man-stufif is not 
made of flesh-and-bone stuflf. The pulpit calls to the man of un- 
broken physical vitality, to the man who has not neglected his body 
or wasted his substance in riotous living. The pulpit is not a sani- 
tarium for the decrepit or a hospital for the diseased, who are 
incapacitated for manual labor and who thereby seek to hide behind 
the sacred desk in order to receive the commiseration of unthinking 
men or sympathetic women. God wants the first fruits for his 
grace in the pulpit; first-fruits not so much in point of time, but 
first or best in quality. 

In the next place, the call of the pulpit is directed specially to 
college students. The speaker is fully aware that some of the 
mightiest heroes of the pulpit in ancient times and in our day were 

93 



94 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

and are men who have not had college education. Moreover, I 
would be bold to go the length and say it is unreasonable to expect 
the day will ever come when all our pulpits will be filled by col- 
legians and it is an open question whether that day should ever 
come. There will and should always be men who will leap from 
the meshes of humanity like the shaggy maned lion, and whose 
roaring voice under their unkempt mane will be the voice of the 
Master of the untutored denizens of mankind. We want them, 
we have them, and will always have them. But for specific reasons, 
I call the attention of the man of books, of letters, of science, and 
literature to this field of service. The pulpit calls to you because 
you think. The pulpit is the one imperial throne and strong men 
should stand therein. Let us ask the question. What are the books 
that the pulpit holds in its hand and offers you for study? First, 
the Book of God, called the Book of Revelation: Where is the 
interpreter that has exhausted its treasures? Is there a half-wit 
commentator that would risk his half-wit by affirming that his 
plummet has sounded its depths? To ask the question who wrote 
it, you will be overwhelmed by the array of historians, orators, 
poets, law-givers, kings, priests, artists, generals, practical men, 
and philosophers. The book tells its own story and it still en- 
gages the thought of the master-minds of earth. 

In the second place another book is placed in the college men's 
hands by the pulpit. It is the book of man, the second revelation. 
Herein will be found every question that affects man in his civil 
relations. The problems of man are the problems of the pulpit. 
The wise and proper solution of the problems require the best 
brain the Church, the school, and the nation can produce. No field 
of human service has a greater need for large brained men, men of 
superior culture, and the strongest intellectuality than the Christian 
pulpit. Just at this point, we may affirm also that no field of 
service for humanity has so large a proportion of the best-brained, 
broadly-cultured leaders and thinkers, as the Christian pulpit. It 
may be further declared that no field offers broader opportunities for 
real, fruitful service than the one presented by the pulpit. Per- 
haps there is but one word in the English language that can epi- 
tomize its work and that word is Service, writ large throughout its 
domain. 

The great Teacher has set in unmistakable terms the supreme 
function of the ministry in words illustrated and buttressed by his 
own deeds. The place of chieftaincy is determined by the quality 
of service. " Whosoever will be Chief among you, let him be your 
Servant " ; and the commentary upon these words follows : " The 
Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister," even 
to the limit of giving his life, " a ransom for many." 

The mviltiplied opportunities for service in our day cannot be 
enumerated. Society is to be rejuvenated and man is to be regener- 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 95 

ated. The whole body, civic, social, intellectual, demand the con- 
centrated and consecrated effort of well trained man. The welfare 
of the whole man must be considered. 

Once upon a time, it was thought the whole duty of the minister 
ended when he got men and women converted. It is now recognized 
that the work of conversion or regeneration has but begun when 
men and women are brought into the church. The profession of 
faith is only the beginning of life and it is not the chief business 
of the minister to get men ready to leave the world, but to build 
them up by training and culture that these very men and women 
may bring the Kingdom of God down from heaven. The under- 
taker deals with dead men, the minister's business is to deal with 
life for the prevention of death. 

What shall we say of the call to duty sounded forth by the Chris- 
tian pulpit to young, educated Christian Negro students ? It is not 
possible that we go wide of the mark in saying to these young men 
that a Kingdom awaits your coming. A race such as is the Negro 
race in its docility, its cry for leaders, its offer of life to leaders, 
its high estimate of the ministry and the fruitage of unstinted serv- 
ice, has never appeared in history prior to this time. It is true 
that the ministry of this race rarely becomes rich from a financial 
point of view ; but what ministry does ? Does a man's life consist 
in the things he possesseth? Or will man of brains and conse- 
cration and power sell his life for thirty pieces of silver? Is there 
nothing higher, larger and more enduring to strive for than a gold 
eagle or an automobile? The Negro race says to you young men 
of physical strength, of college training, of large culture, " Silver 
and gold have I none, but such as I have give I unto thee." The 
opportunity to rescue a race and build it should not be turned aside 
by thinkers. Moreover, we must bear in mind that this is the work 
of black men and if you men will listen upon your knees to the 
pathetic call of this yearning, hungering people you will hear the 
words of the mighty Bishop of the Crusades, "Dens Vult." A 
failure at this point will be more than an individual failure, it will 
be a race failure. 

Moreover, the duty to serve is measured by the power to serve 
and the call to serve is in the power to serve. No man liveth unto 
himself and it is an open question whether a young man who has 
been given the best training, has a right to consider personal needs 
and honors in a place of service. The man who has read the story 
of Livingstone fails to get the heart of the African hero who sees 
only the worldly honors that came to him or who misinterprets that 
burning zeal that drove him to his dying hour in Illala as a thirst 
for fame. The words of the Christ on finding one's life in sacrifice 
have no more significant illustration outside his own inimitable life 
than is seen in the life of this African traveler, discoverer and hero, 
the still living Livingstone. 



96 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

But a final word may rightly be given to you men of to-morrow 
by calling your attention to another qualification called for by the 
Christian pulpit. Superb physical culture and unlimited literary 
furnishings to the limit of dialectics remain idols of the den and of 
the library, and are thereby unfitted for the ministrations of the 
sacred pulpit, until touched and sanctified by a consecration bom 
from above whose daily cry is, " Woe is me if I preach not." The 
Negro race is not in need of a muscular Christianity, nor a literary 
Christianity, nor even an artistic Christianity. What we need is a 
spiritually dynamic Christianity that knows and seeks absolutely 
nothing among men except their complete regeneration from all the 
sins that mar, blur, tarnish the divinity within and that weaken, 
corrupt or destroy the Kingdom of God in human society. Pure 
literature is ineffectual as a regenerative power except as it is shot 
through and through with the spirit of divine service. 

But finally I dare not attempt to mislead you. If you have brawn 
and brain, you have made a good beginning; but these are inade- 
quate to the final work. Pugilism requires brain and skill ; philoso- 
phy, science and literature require brain, culture, taste, and a dis- 
criminating knowledge. The pulpit calls for strong muscles, large 
brain, clear vision, but as a " sine qua non," a consecrated spirit to 
serve. None else need apply. You men of to-morrow have a 
kingdom awaiting and I pray that some of the strongest men will 
enter. 



QUALIFICATIONS OF THE MINISTER 

ROBERT E. JONES, D.D. 

Editor, Southwestern Christian Advocate. 

The qualifications of the minister are determined by the task 
which faces him ; upon no ministry ever fell a heavier burden than 
that which has fallen upon the Negro ministry whose task it is to 
take a race in the making and give to it a true interpretation of the 
Christ life and of the New Testament idea of living and to relate 
the whole life of the race to Christ and His Word. The Negro 
minister is to awaken in his race an ethical conscience, a fine sense 
of moral action and a steadiness of purpose in all things that con- 
cern individual and social righteousness. Here is a task that is 
worthy of the best effort of the picked men of the race. 

The most inviting field to-day for the educated Negro of good 
sense and poise is the ministry. It offers a larger confidence of 
the people, a larger return for energy expended, a warmer appreci- 
ation on the part of those served and even a fair financial remunera- 
tion. The latter, of course, is the lowest consideration, but it 
should not be forgotten that there are pulpits in all Negro denomi- 



I 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 97 

nations calling for strong men who would be at least comfortably 
provided for. 

Without controverting the idea of a call to preach, no man 
should refuse to enter the ministry who sees the appalling need and 
is conscious of a reasonable ability to serve. There is the need. 
The field is white with harvest and where are the reapers? 

I want to name briefly some of the qualifications of the minister. 
They are not necessarily given in logical order nor do I intend to 
name all the qualifications. There are some qualifications which 
are so fundamental that they need not be discussed. 

First : Passion for children. It is sad comment upon our church 
work that our Sunday Schools are comparatively weak. The aver- 
age enrollment among our Sunday Schools in Negro churches is 
about half of the church membership, whereas the normal church 
should have an enrollment equal to or in excess of the church 
membership. This is due to the lack, on the part of the minister, 
of an appreciation of the value of child life. 

One of the most gratifying prospects in the programme of the 
Christian Church to-day is that gradually the proper emphasis is 
being placed upon the importance of the child and its relation to 
world evangelization. In the light of the clearness of Christ's 
teaching on this subject it is strange that the ministry for so many 
centuries has shifted the greater emphasis to the ideal of reforming 
and Christianizing the adult. 

This fact has been especially significant as the Church has gone 
forth to do missionary work. The teaching and training of the 
children have been found well nigh indispensable to the planting 
of Christianity and to the progress and development of Christianity 
in the missionary fields. In fact, men of thought and of vision are 
beginning to see that the ideal way of evangelizing the world is to 
conserve the youth of the land in the Church — to keep the children 
from the snares of the world, and at the same time to keep the 
Church rejuvenated with the ardor, enthusiasm and vigor of young, 
gleeful, bubbling life. Write it down strong in the qualifications 
of the minister that he must know child life and be prepared to 
handle it. 

Second : He must have reasonable ability as a business man. 
He must be able to handle the finances of the Church honestly and 
carefully. Many a man who has had good intentions has wrecked 
his ministry because of his lack of knowledge of the ordinary busi- 
ness methods. 

Third : He must have ability to direct the social and civic activi- 
ties of his parishioners. The Church more and more must express 
itself in every-day life and must make itself felt in all the affairs 
of men. The minister must be the directing force of his people 
in all social movements. 

Fourth : He must be resourceful and tactful in handling inter- 



98 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

racial relations. One of the finest things to be done by the Negro 
minister is in promoting good will and good fellowship between the 
races. This task looms large in its possibilities for good in pro- 
moting better schools, better home life and better churches. The 
tactful and resourceful minister is an actual necessity and when the 
individual preacher lacks this quality, the progress of the kingdom 
is retarded. As the races come together they will find a basis for 
mutual understanding and cooperation. The races come in con- 
tact with each other for the most part in the lower elements — in 
the slums, in the saloons, in the dregs of society. The better ele- 
ment of white people know very little about the better element of 
Negroes. They know relatively little about the Negro homes of 
culture and refinement, where art is admired, where the family life 
is a charm. The reason for this is at hand. The white people, 
for the most part, come in contact with the domestic class of col- 
ored people. The upper class of colored people, who have a rea- 
sonable income from business or professional life or otherwise, 
have no need to come in contact with the better class of white 
people. 

The function of the minister in bringing these two elements into 
a relation of mutual respect and confidence must not be overlooked. 
Fifth: The qualified minister must be of good moral character 
— I mean by moral character, right living. The minister's tre- 
mendous influence makes it imperative upon him to live a clean 
white life, above reproach, above suspicion. But I refer to moral 
character more particularly in the sense of integrity on moral issues. 
The minister must not be a negative or passive quantity when moral 
questions are up. He must be a positive force always on the side 
of right. The community expects the minister to declare himself 
strongly when great questions are at stake ; when he does not do 
so, he weakens the moral fiber of his parish. The moral battle 
is the Negro's great battle. The world has been convinced that 
he has muscle and brain but the world is yet a bit skeptical of the 
Negro's moral stamina. Here is an undisputed field of leadership 
for the Negro minister. 

Sixth : The qualified minister must completely abandon himself 
for Christ's sake. " Whosoever will save his life shall lose it and 
whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it." This prin- 
ciple announced by the Master is a fine programme for life. It is 
the best possible programme for the politician. It is a principle 
that makes patriots who are willing to die rather than cowards who 
would surrender. It is all that is good and best in Sociology; it 
is the one imperial programme for the minister. 

Seventh : The minister must relate the whole gospel to the whole 
man. I am not clear on the institutional church as it is sometimes 
operated but I am clear that the minister must be concerned about 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 99 

his people more than two hours on the Sabbath in the morning and 
evening services and one hour in the mid-week prayer services. 
He must be concerned about his people in every work hour of the 
week if not indeed concerned about the hours of rest at night. 
The preacher must be able to sympathetically fit himself into the 
life of the community in all of its phases. I heard it said recently 
that the average minister was powerless in shop-meetings. But 
the present-day minister must know the shop, the language of the 
shop, the life of the shop. The country preacher must know rural 
life. He must know the farm, soil, birds, flowers and live-stock 
so that he may interpret the gospel to his people in terms that will 
grip and stick. 

Eighth : The qualified Negro preacher must be the medium be- 
tween the hilarious emotionalism of his fathers and the cold in- 
tellectualism of his teachers. 

Of course, the minister must be intellectually equipped. That 
is, he must be trained to think consecutively and consistently, and 
in this training of the minister he is to have the best that is to be 
gotten. Not that he should be stufifed with dead languages but 
he should deal in his preparation with the living, vital issues of life 
based upon doctrine and history. More than all, he should know 
his Bible thoroughly. I mean he should know his English Bible 
so that he can quote Scripture correctly and pertinently and there- 
fore forcefully. Much could be said on this point, but to sum 
it up, the minister must be one of the outstanding thinkers of his 
community. 

Above all, the minister must have spiritual equipment. He must 
tarry at Jerusalem until he gets baptism from on high. There must 
be a union of the human and divine life. Christ must dwell in 
him ; for apart from Christ, he can do nothing. This spiritual ele- 
ment augments and makes vital every other equipment and without 
the spiritual element every other equipment fails. 

Thus equipped the minister must be a soul saver. The minister 
is credentialed by his ability to lead men to Christ and to lead men 
to Christ is the greatest task of the Church; all things else are 
subsidiary thereto and should aid to that end. A man who cannot 
lead other men to Christ has no business in the Christian ministry. 
The minister who employs professional evangelists loses one of 
the strongest ties by which he can link himself with his people. 

Finally, the Negro race with its spiritual temperament; with a 
voice unmatched by any other race for music, strength, and range ; 
with native oratorical passion ; with apocalyptic imagination, should 
produce great preachers who would cope with the world's best. 
As a race, we have not yet produced our outstanding preacher as 
we have our educator, orator, artist and poet. 

May not that preacher be in the making at this Convention? 



lOO 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 



PRESENT WEAKNESSES OF THE NEGRO MINISTRY 

SQUARELY FACED 

BISHOP WILBUR P. THIRKIELD, LL.D.. 

New Orleans, La, 

Starting without two positive inheritances from two centuries 
of slavery — the English language and the Christian religion — 
without which the achievements of the Christian Church among 
American Negroes never could have been chronicled, the ministry 
of the South among the colored people has reared the fabric of 
vigorous and aggressive church organizations, that take their recog- 
nized place beside other great Christian bodies of the nation. That 
this is an achievement without parallel must be granted when we 
consider it as the work of a people whose executive talents had 
never been developed ; a people who never were trained to plan 
work, or to establish institutions. Though there were models, yet 
the executive and administrative talent brought into exercise in 
the organization of churches among the colored people of the 
South, furnish an achievement unprecedented so early in the his- 
tory of any race. More than 37,000 church buildings with nearly 
four million members stand as a testimony to the success and 
permanency of this work. The aggregate value of church prop- 
erty in churches and parsonages is more than $57,000,000 (Census 
Bureau 1906, $56,636,159). 

Not the least among the achievements of the ministry among 
the Freedmen is the conservation of the religious life of the people 
during this formative period, when through them light was brought 
to those who were literally sitting in the region of darkness and 
of the shadow of death. Though naturally religious, yet without 
the ministry and the services of public worship conducted in the 
name of the Christian religion, the innate religious impulses of the 
people would have found expression in debasing forms of religious 
devotion, and in some places would have degenerated into mere 
fetish worship, or the following of false Christs. Their sensuous, 
natures would have run riot in surrender to voodoo incantations 
and debasing worship of " King Solomons " and the " Queens of 
Sheba," as was the case a few years ago in Liberty County, Georgia. 
Take it all in all, this spiritual work in preserving the form and 
vitality of the Christian religion among a people just emerged from 
slavery, is one of the miracles of modern Christianity. 

Now this work was done largely by an ignorant ministry; by 
men thrust into the sacred office through the necessity of circum- 
stances ; by men with inadequate conceptions of the demands of 
the ministry; by men with low ideals of life and often false ideas 
of religion, with crude notions of morality, in the Church and 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS lOI 

family, inherited from early conditions. That this general descrip- 
tion of the early ministry admits of exceptions goes without say- 
ing. There were scores and hundreds of thoughtful, intelligent, 
consecrated men who preached and wrought mightily for God ; 
men worthy a place among the saints and confessors of all ages. 
Well do thousands of these devout and godly people in the min- 
istry and laity, deserve the tribute to their religious life so elo- 
quently given by Bishop Atticus G. Haygood : 

" I have seen the Negroes in all their religious moods, in their 
most death-like trances and in their wildest outbursts of excite- 
ment. I have preached to them in town and city and on the plan- 
tations. I have been their pastor, have led their class and prayer 
meetings, conducted their love feasts, baptized their children, and 
buried their dead. In the reality of religion among them I have 
most entire confidence, nor can I ever doubt it while religion is a 
reality to me." 

Amid danger and often privation these early preachers of the 
race labored on. They builded better than they knew. Noble 
men ! God honors them. We should revere them. A race should 
arise and call them blessed. They have toiled down in the dark 
places, laying the foundations on which have been reared the 
splendid superstructure of to-day, made possible alone by their 
sacrifice and devotion. 

Their mission, however, let it be remembered, was to a people 
weak, ignorant, degraded in body, mind and spirit ; people who in 
slavery had followed their inborn tendencies to religious worship, 
often led, we must gratefully add, by godly ministers and devout 
women who gave themselves sincerely to their instruction; peo- 
ple who from inherited disposition and training were easily influ- 
enced and led. Set free, they flocked to the Church. They had 
no other place to go. No matter who the minister or what the 
ministration at her altars, the Church was crowded. They sat 
patiently under a ministry, in general, rude, ignorant, boisterous. 
They listened and shouted under preaching that often was a com- 
bination of mere sound and fury. They did not care for thought 
of the connected discourse. They had never been trained to think. 
They gave generously for the support of the ministry and of the 
Church. They had never been taught to save. The Church was 
all in all to them, the center of their social, educational and po- 
litical, as well as their religious life. 

But the ministry of to-day faces new conditions. A changed 
people confronts it. Freed-men from slavery are almost wholly 
passed away. Born Fr^^-men and their children, trained under our 
free institutions, educated by an outlay of hundreds of millions of 
Northern and Southern money, are to the front. The Negro has 
been given a chance, never before given to any destitute race in all 
history, and he has shown his native worth by taking that chance. 



I02 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

Schools have been opened, and he has been to school. Twenty thou- 
sand are to-day in the higher schools and colleges established by 
Northern benevolence. Several noble institutions have been opened 
by denominations of colored people. And we must gratefully rec- 
ognize the fact that the Southern people are gradually taking hold, 
also. At Paine and Lane Institutes and Tuscaloosa Seminary the 
noblest talent of the Church is giving itself with devotion to this 
work. 

More than two-thirds of the race read. The school teacher is 
abroad in the land. Thirst for knowledge is quickened. In keen 
desire and sacrifice for an education the race, it is often affirmed, 
surpasses the whites. The school teacher is becoming the oracle 
in a thousand centers. The educated physician claims respect 
because of his skill and learning. The public lecturer is on the 
platform among the people. The farmers' conference is awakening 
the farmers to thought. The newspaper comes by daily mail, to 
his door. Civilization is working tremendous changes. Comfort- 
able homes attract. Places of amusement are open. Money for 
travel seems plenty. The people read. They think. The world 
of literature, good and bad, is open to them. The Sunday news- 
paper is a temptation. The Church is no longer the only center 
of attraction. The voice of the minister is no longer the voice 
of God. New centers of thought and life are forming. 

The fact for the ministry of to-day to face, is this — The Church 
HAS Rivals. It no longer is supreme in the thought and affection 
of the people merely because it is the Church. It must prove by 
its works, its right of existence as a divine institution. The Church 
of to-day must by its spiritual power and moral leadership estab- 
lish its claim to the credence and devotion of thoughtful, pure and 
aspiring men and women, or lose its supreme place in the thought 
and life of the Negro race. 

The ministry of to-day is confronted by problems that it must 
meet, grapple with, and provide for, or else the utter desolation 
and ruin of many churches shall result. 

I. The first weakness that amounts to a problem is, with the type 
of ministerial force now available, to hold the rising generation 
to the Church. 

A ministry such as availed for the religious leadership of the 
past generation, struggling up from the darkness of slavery, will not 
answer the demands of a race of free men that has been to school, 
that knows, that thinks, and aspires. 

The Bible is no longer a sealed book. The day school and Sun- 
day school have opened the Word to them. They have learned. 
They think. They demand a ministry that knows and thinks, and 
that by its virtue and intelligence commands their respect. 

The forces that lead must work from above downward. The 
minister must now sustain the pulpit and not depend on the pulpit 



t 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 103 

to sustain him. A pulpit surmounted by a black suit, buttoned up 
in front, embellished with a white neck-tie, concealing ignorance 
and sanctioning, by their sacred associations, ranting and religi- 
osity in the name of religion, will no longer command the awe or 
even the respect of the young free men and free women of to- 
day. With their thinking minds, their knowledge of the Word, 
their awakening conscience, their loftier ideals of righteousness, 
their thirsting after the truth, — the question arises to the solemnity 
of a problem, — Hoiv are we to hold this rising generation to the 
Church F The answer is clear. Only through a trained and conse- 
crated ministry capable of leadership, can the demands of the 
Church of to-day be met. The true statement of the question is 
not. The ministry and the Freedmen of yesterday ; but, The min- 
istry and the Freemen of to-day and to-morrow. 

2. Another weakness that confronts the Negro ministry, as it en- 
ters this second half-century, is the lack of men who have the quali- 
ties of leadership to meet the demands for the civil, moral and social 
reforms that in State and church are bound to come, and that 
demand a Christian leadership. This leadership is now largely in 
the hands of the ministry. To hold this leadership demands a 
ministry that proves by its masterful grip and its brave treatment 
of all questions that make for the civil, educational, industrial, and 
moral uplift of the people its right to leadership. In social up- 
heavals and reformations, — in the righting of the wrongs of the 
masses, how often has history witnessed an infidel leadership as- 
suming control and direction. Observe Tom Paine and French 
infidelity in the American Revolution. The ministry because it 
lagged in the beginnings of the anti-slavery movement, was placed 
in a position of weakness, that through the years it has been try- 
ing to explain away. 

The reforms now needed, and that through an aggressive and 
alert ministry may come in peace, must find origin in the Gospel ; 
but in a Gospel interpreted and enforced by educated, catholic brain, 
reaching not the few, but the masses of both races. 

History teaches that if the ministry does not grasp its natural 
right of leadership, infidelity will take up the ideas of reform, 
vitalized as they are by Christian truth, and lead the clergy in the 
enforcement of their bearings on social and racial questions. The 
Church from its conferences and Christian schools must throw 
out among the unredeemed, ignorant and often vicious masses of 
the South these agencies of redemption. The Negro has ever 
looked to the ministry, white and colored, for guidance, and to 
God's word for the principles of redress. Often when he has asked 
for bread he has received a stone. Many now begin to doubt the 
Bible and to scout the ministry. Infidels are beginning to harangue 
the ignorant multitudes. Socialistic agnostics are sure to have 
their day. A sad day for the Church and for humanity when 



104 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

popular liberty and the redemption of a people from inhumanity 
and wrong fall to the leadership of skeptics. 

3. Another weakness revealed in the effort of the ministry to 
elevate the Negro masses is the lack of men of ability and worth, 
with the enthusiasm of humanity and the self -forgetting devotion 
to Christ, that will carry them into the darkest places of the South. 
Stanley has given us a thrilling picture of darkest Africa and the 
way out. Let us realize that we have a darkest Africa in Amer- 
ica : — in the bayous of Louisiana ; the rice swamps and turpentine 
camps of the coast ; in the deltas of the Mississippi, and the vast 
dark stretches of Arkansas. Job describes these regions well: 
" A land of darkness as darkness itself, and of the shadow of 
death ; without any order and where the light is darkness." The 
cry of help has in it the undertone of despair. Who will arise 
to go? Who should go? Not weak and unequipped ministers 
and local preachers, but the most virile, courageous and best 
equipped men of the race. 

4. Undue emphasis on the emotional in religion as compared with 
the ethical and rational is a vital weakness. A pamphlet issued by 
the Baptist Home Mission Board several years ago, and approved 
by ten leading Negro Baptist preachers in ten Southern states, 
asserts that less than one hundred Negro Baptist ministers out of 
ten thousand ever had a full college and theological course. " It 
may be safely said," continues this pamphlet, '* that two-thirds of 
the preaching is of the crudest character, emotional, hortatory, 
imaginative, visionary, abounding in misconceptions of Scripture, 
the close of the sermon being delivered with powerful intonations 
and gesticulations to arouse the audience to a high pitch of excite- 
ment, which both preacher and people regard as indispensable to 
a ' good meeting.' " 

I have known young ministers who have had the best training 
of our schools to surrender to lower standards of an ignorant 
people, and weakly appeal to the emotional because it gave apparent 
satisfaction and temporary success, especially increasing the col- 
lection. The emotional powers of the race are an asset of in- 
calculable power in the religion of the Negro. To turn emotional 
gifts into channels of service and sacrifice — this makes them per- 
manent for power and progress. 

5. The Negro is apparently by nature and definitely by training 
Protestant. No doubt you share with me the conviction that the 
larger interests of the Kingdom of God may be served by holding 
him to this faith. The Negro ministry is sure to face in the near 
future the strong, aggressive priesthood of the Catholic church, 
supported by trained sisters of charity and the organized social 
interests of that great church. A weak, poorly equipped Prot- 
estant ministry cannot meet the situation. 

Miss Drexel, with a fine spirit of consecration, has given her life 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 105 

and her millions to this work. Negro Catholics are increasing not 
only in the city, but in the rural districts. 

6. The weaknesses of the ministry center around two chief points, 
immorality and ignorance. The first and most vital relates to the 
morality of the clergy. 

As compared with moral standards of the last generation the 
change for the better has been marked. There is ground for gen- 
uine encouragement. Higher standards and nobler ideals, in gen- 
eral, prevail. Yet representative men of all churches to-day lament 
over the immorality of many ministers, who use the livery of the 
court of heaven to serve the devil in. It is charged that men of 
notoriously unclean lives, yet of brilliant talents, are, after flagrant 
lapses and a brief season of repentance, continued in the sacred 
office. It is also charged that men guilty of immorality and crime, 
that ruin lives and blast homes, are hurried from State to State 
out of the reach of public sentiment, with ministerial orders re- 
tained in their pockets. The ease with which discredited preach- 
ers of one denomination pass to another, with full recognition of 
orders, is not only a weakness but a scandal to religion and to 
church order and discipline. 

However, the standard is lifting. There is no reason for despair. 
The improvement has been vast when we compare the present with 
past history, and recognize the influences and habits and condi- 
tions that obtained in the pit of slavery from which a race was 
digged. The membership now begins to demand a purer and more 
intelligent ministry. On this there is large hope. 

7. Undue emphasis on money among the people now getting 
ideas of providence, thrift and saving is a source of weakness. 
There is no question that a disproportionate place is given to 
finances in the Church service. This is often the outcome of 
expensive churches that are out of all proportion to the financial 
ability of the people. 

It is a sad situation for an aspiring people to go from farm and 
shop and hard work to the Church and get little or nothing except- 
ing a chance to give to a collection and listen to prolonged harangues 
on giving. 

The influence of many ministers is being undermined, and is 
often destroyed by their accepting official position and leadership 
in secret orders. The orders themselves are weakening the Church 
because they demand and receive from thousands of church mem- 
bers a loyalty and devotion beyond that which the Church receives. 
Again, the financial support of these orders often takes precedence 
of the claims of the Church. Where there is a financial collapse, 
as is often the case, in these orders of which ministers are chief 
officers, confidence in the ministry and in the Church is often 
undermined and even destroyed. 

It is affirmed by those who should know, that miristers in various 



io6 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

secret societies, in sworn secrecy shield each other from punish- 
ment for evil doing, exalting secret oaths above the voice of the 
Church. Even the Southern Christian Recorder has stated " that 
men are afraid to speak out their sentiments in some conferences. 
Rings and secret signs control some conferences instead of God 
and the Bible." 

8. Lack of leadership is also evident in meeting the modern so- 
cial problems that now confront the more intelligent and prosperous 
of the Negro race. Too few are equipped for the broader social 
service of the Church. The pulpit and its administrations are too 
often divorced from the daily life of the people, touching life at 
only one point. The Church and its ministry in every community 
should mean better homes, better farms, better schools, and an 
enriched life. 

Burdens should be lifted from the poor and unfortunate. Con- 
secrated and trained laymen should be led in looking after pris- 
oners in the jail, the sick, the oppressed, the poor. Modem social- 
ism is a danger to a people whose faith is largely traditional. 

9. Lack of business equipment in the ministry leads to slackness 
and often utter failure in the keeping of the records of the Church. 
I have found in conferences that over one-half of the churches had 
no well-kept records, and often, no records at all. This weakness 
extends to the financial records, and is often the occasion of need- 
less debts and even the loss of church property. 

10. A recognized leader with whom I have consulted is con- 
vinced that the independent church, governed entirely by the local 
body, is often of little help to the race, especially where ignorance 
and low moral standards prevail in a community. He writes : 
" There is no restraint whatever on the man wdio holds such cre- 
dentials. So long as he can have a following of a dozen or more 
members he is a preacher in good standing, and in a measure can 
force association with others, for he is just as much a preacher as 
any preacher who may be affiliated with the State or national asso- 
ciation. It is simply a case of too much democracy for a growing 
people." 

A practical movement for federation and denominational cooper- 
ation would give strength to the Church, and relief to an over- 
burdened people in thousands of towns. 

11. A weakness that we can but view with alarm is the lack of 
capable candidates for the ministry. Forty years ago the ministry- 
commanded the choicest men in the schools. Now, with higher 
standards of entrance, the medical schools are crowded, while com- 
paratively few are in the theological seminaries. At Meharry Med- 
ical College the attendance is about 600, while in Gammon Theo- 
logical Seminary with an endowment and equipment of over $600,- 
000 it is less than 100. The same disproportion prevails in the 
Howard Universitv School of Medicine and the School of Theolog}^ 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 1 07 

At Richmond, the chief school of the Baptists, there are also less 
than 100 theological students. Out of 10,000 ministers in that 
church there are, according to official records, only about 500 
students for the ministry. 

Dr. Kelly Miller has stated that the tendency is away from the 
ministry " on the part of the Negro youth with splendid educational 
equipment. During the past twenty-five years the colored public 
schools of Washington have not furnished half a dozen candidates 
for the ministry out of the several thousands who have completed 
the high school course in that town." " I do not now recall," he 
states, " a Negro graduate from a Northern college in the past ten 
years who has entered upon the sacred office." He adds, " This in- 
difference or neglect is due to the natural feeling which the edu- 
cated man has towards too close affiliation with the more ignorant 
body of the clergy now filling these stations." 

It is not encouraging when at an annual conference thirteen men 
are recommended by a committee for entrance, and after examina- 
tion before the conference, all but two were found to be disquali- 
fied. Yet without close oversight nearly all of these candidates 
would have been admitted. 

It is the conviction of those with whom I have consulted, that 
the m.inistry is not keeping pace with the advance among the rank 
and file of the people. That the medical profession, in intelligence 
and general equipment, ranks far above the ministry. 

This subject was assigned to me by your committee, and I have 
spoken frankly. These weaknesses I have set forth should to you 
constitute both a call and a challenge : — a call to heroic and self- 
sacrificing service, — a challenge to undertake great adventures for 
God. 

Here on this mount of transfiguration are four hundred of the 
picked young men and women of the Negro race. May you here 
lose sight of self and " see Jesus only " ! Go with him down to 
the foot of this mount of privilege and of vision. Go down 
among the halt, the blind, the paralytic. Go with a gospel of hope 
•and a hand with the heart of Christ in it, — to uplift, to heal and 
to redeem. " Humble yourself in the mighty hand of God, and 
He will exalt vou." 



EVANGELISM 

BISHOP GEO. W. CLINTON, 
Charlotte, N. C, Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. 

What is Evangelism? What has it to do with a meeting in 
which young men and young women have gathered for conference, 
instruction and insjiiration? In what respects will a discussion of 
this great old-fashioned religious subject prove of benefit to the 



I08 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

young men and young women here assembled, and what use can 
they make of the lessons they may learn, the suggestions they may 
receive, and the inspiration they may get that will make them more 
effective workers in the service of our Lord and Master, in the 
labors among their fellows, in fulfilling the great mission of life? 

These are some of the questions that came to me when I began 
to consider whether I should accept the invitation which Dr. Mott 
so kindly sent me a number of days ago. The thought which came 
to me while pondering these questions will furnish what I shall 
say to you at this hour. .|^ 

What then is Evangelism? Evangelism is a live message sent 
from God by a live messenger born of God commissioned by the 
Lord Jesus Christ to go out in search of individuals many or few 
for the purpose of leading them to Christ. 

The important factor in Evangelism is the message. The ef- 
fectiveness and promptness with which this message will become 
a savor of life unto those to whom it is carried, will largely depend 
upon the messenger. 

Every man, every woman, every individual whose heart is touched 
by the power of the Holy Ghost, whose life has undergone that 
change which is called regeneration or the new birth, should feel 
himself duty bound to promote the cause of Evangelism. 

While Evangelism may and should produce revivalism, Evangel- 
ism is more far-reaching and abiding than revivalism. Revivalism 
is the occasional movement for soul saving, while Evangelism does 
not limit itself to any period. It overlooks numbers and regards 
the individual as no less deserving of earnest endeavor than the 
multitude. 

There is no fact that should be brought home to the Church with 
greater emphasis than the fact that Evangelism is the one indis- 
pensable mission of the Christian Church and that when this ceases 
to be true, the Church will not only lose power and efficiency as a 
soul-saving agency, but it will depart from the one apostolic custom 
of which all branches of the Christian Church can be proud. 

Whatever efifort or endeavor results in persuading the unsaved 
to surrender their lives to Christ and become consecrated to His 
service is Evangelism — whether that effort is the persuading of 
one person, as was the case with Andrew who told his brother 
Simon about the Saviour and brouglit him to the Messiah, or the 
powerful gospel message of Simon Peter compelling three thou- 
sand souls to throw off the yoke of sin and enlist in the service of 
Christ. 

The need of Evangelism was never greater than now, and I 
believe I speak consen^atively when I assert that never in the his- 
tory of the country, perhaps never in the history of the world, 
were men more willing and ready to hear and heed the appeals of 
Evangelism. 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTxMENTS 109 

The demand is not confined to men in the ministry, nor men and 
women who have been promoted to leadership in the Christian 
Church ; it reaches everyone who has been raised from the death 
of sin unto the hfe of righteousness, and to whom has been given 
the command, — " let your light so shine before men that they may 
see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." 
This is an age when the duty of Christian stewardship needs to be 
emphasized as never before. The pastor in the pulpit, officers in- 
trusted with managing the affairs of the Church, members who co- 
operate in the work of the Church, that it may be a life-saving 
agency in the world ; young men and young women who have be- 
come acquainted with the Lord, and whose minds are being cul- 
tured to fit them for better and larger service, should realize their 
responsibility in the great work of winning men and women to 
Christ, and should not hesitate to draw upon the great source of 
power — the Holy Spirit — who alone can give them success in 
this holy mission. It seems to me that the one question that should 
be especially emphasized on such an occasion as this is : " What is 
needed to make one efficient in promoting Evangelism and what 
are the chief factors to be employed by those who are thus 
equipped ? " 

To my mind the one chief need is unswerving loyalty to Jesus 
Christ, and thorough consecration to a life of service in promoting 
His cause among men. 

A man who has given allegiance to Christ and who has enlisted 
in the cause of Christian service would not, must not be satisfied 
until he has sought and gained special power for service, and until 
he gets in the habit of using that power to have others know and 
enjoy his experience. 

The great factor to be employed is the Word of God with spe- 
cial emphasis upon the great doctrines of Christianity and personal 
experience which gives a power and enthusiasm to the worker and 
force to his message. 

We come to the three main factors to be considered with regard 
to Evangelism, namely: the Message or the Word of God, the 
people who need the message, and the messenger. The Bible, the 
Message or the Word of God, demands and deserves the special, 
careful, prayerful, regular and systematic study, for the Word of 
God is the instrument of warfare of the apostle of Evangelism. 
It is the instrument quick and powerful, and sharper than any 
two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul 
and spirit, and of the joints and marrow — a discerner of the very 
thoughts and intents of the heart. It is the Christian's arsenal 
holding his shot and shell, holding his powder ever dry, needing 
but a spark from the Holy Ghost to bombard and annihilate the 
strongest citadel of the enemy of mankind. It is his electric wire 
whose lightest touch can explode God's well-laid submarine mines, 



no THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

able in any instant to sink every fleet of Satan. It is his dynamo 
of inexhaustible energy that can at the command " Come forth " 
send back the blood afresh and young, tingling through the veins 
and arteries of a paralyzed old man, or revive once more the young 
man of Nain, or the young woman of Jairus' household, or even 
a Lazarus four days, or four years, or four centuries, or four thou- 
sand years dead in sin. It is the good news, the Gospel, the glad 
tidings that cause the lame to leap for joy, the blind to see world- 
startling visions, the deaf to hear symphonies undreamed of by 
Mozart, or Handel or Beethoven, and the dumb to sing of grace. 
It is the magnetic star whose station is Calvary — blood-stained 
Calvary — where once stood a shameful cross now transfigured and 
drawing unto it all men, all nations and tongues of all climes and 
colors and creeds. It is the same old, old story ever new, — the 
story of a lost soul, a lost world that may repent, believe and be 
saved. Do you know that Book? do you like it? do you love it? 
Is it 3^our daily regular, special, constant and abiding companion? 

The object of evangelism is the world, the every one, the single 
individual, the world of men, — a vast field already white unto the 
harvest. No age in the history of the world has been more ready, 
hungering and thirsting, nay dying, for a look at the cross than 
the present age. Physical troubles, intellectual troubles, moral and 
spiritual troubles, have turned the world unto a hart panting for 
the satisfying brooks of the gospel. Every day, everywhere, at 
the fireside, on the mart, in the city and in the country, in books 
and magazines, in song and story, comes the cry : " Come over to 
Macedonia and help us." 

The instrument, the scythe of the reaper, is sharp and ready, 
the field white unto the harvest, and the Master willing and anxious 
for the work to be done. What then is the trouble? It is the 
trouble of the scarcity of laborers, of the unpreparedness of the 
laborers, of the lack of vision of those who should be laborers. 
And this question comes home to the young men and young women 
of the schools with special and peculiar emphasis. 

When the beloved Apostle John wrote: "I have written unto 
you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God 
abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one," he gave the 
whole situation in a nutshell. He put a wonderful responsibility 
upon youth. What are the elements of strength? Only three: 
Faith, Hope and Love. What this age needs is Faith; faith in 
ourselves and the wonderful possibilities made by Christ's visit 
on earth ; faith in the world ; faith in God ; faith flung out in grand 
and glorious visions ; faith like that which turned China, but a few 
years ago the Gibraltar against Christianity, into a Republic with 
sixty per cent, of her government officials Christians ; faith that 
Russia, cruel Russia, will in a decade be turned completely aroiuid ; 
faith that Africa, bleeding Africa, waiting Africa, can be redeemed 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 1 1 1 

in a lifetime; faith that soon the kingdoms of this world will be- 
come the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ; faith that human 
nature is capable of attaining unto the likeness of the Master — 
God give us such faith ! 

Let me emphasize this last thought. By attaining unto the like- 
ness of the Master I mean to infer that the life, the personal life 
of an evangelist, of any individual Christian, counts for more than 
all the creeds of a vv^hole church to a dying community. You all 
have doubtless heard of Stanley's commission to find the lost Liv- 
ingstone. Before the great scientist left civilization for dark Africa, 
he was a disbeliever and made an open boast of it in England. 
He left for Africa, met Livingstone and lived with him for a short 
while. Livingstone preached no gospel to him by word of mouth. 
It is doubtful if Stanley ever heard Livingstone preach, but when 
he left Livingstone, Stanley was a changed man. Stanley went 
to find Livingstone and he found Christ. 

Then have faith not alone in God, but also in ourselves that each 
of us can reveal the living Christ. 

Hope comes naturally with such a faith, hope that wrong will 
soon turn to right, that the darkest part of the night is just before 
the dawn. This element of strength helps us to follow in the wake 
of the vision splendid. It makes us, in the language of Paul, not 
disobedient to the holy vision. Oh, the pity of it ! the tragedy of 
it all ! Communities are dying, cities sinking deeper and deeper, 
and countries groveling in sin and superstition because some young 
man, some young woman is weak, tragically weak, cowardly weak, 
and will not dare to be loyal to the heavenly vision. 

When Christ Jesus called forth Lazarus from the tomb, the 
dead man stood before him, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, 
and his face was bound about with a napkin. But notice the next 
order: "Loose him and let him go." Not simply "Loose him," 
but also " let him go." Therein is the other element of strength 
and that is Love, or Charity or Service — call it by any name. You 
must go, you must do service. The only vital way, the only ef- 
fective way, Love exhibits herself is in service. There may be 
service without Love, but there can be no true love without service 
or charity. 

Of what use is a nation's army and navy, if when needed they 
cannot serve? Of what use is a man's wealth if it can do him no 
service? Of what use is anything, anywhere, any time, if it is of 
no service? It is not enough to sing: 

"Jesus shall reign where'er the Sun 
Doth his successive journeys run." 

We must hearken also to the command: 

" Go, labor on, spend and be spent, 
Thy joy to do the Father's will ; 



112 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

It is the way the Master went; 
Should not the servant tread it still? 

Go, labor on, 'tis not for naught; 
Thine earthly loss is heavenly gain; 
Men heed thee, love thee, praise thee not; 
The Master praises, — what are men? 

Toil on, faint not, keep watch and pray! ^ j 

Be wise the erring soul to win, '-. I 

Go forth into the world's highway; 
Compel the wanderer to come in. 

Toil on, and in thy toil rejoice. 
For toil comes rest, for exile home; 
Soon shalt thou hear the Bridegroom's voice. 
The midnight peal, ' Behold I come.' " 



I 



I 



AFRICA AS A MISSION FIELD 

The Continent of Africa 

Responses to the Gospel in Africa 

Debt and Responsibility of the American Negro 



THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA 

BISHOP J. C. HARTZELL 

Of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Bishop Hartzell spoke in part as follows : 

At the request of Dr. Mott, I am to speak briefly of Africa as a 
whole, and give some information as to the vastness of its territory, 
and some facts bearing upon the present condition of its peoples, 
government and future outlook, as related to missionary move- 
ments. 

Africa is not a country but a continent of several empires. The 
vastness of its territory is but little realized except by those who 
have sailed along its shores, traversed its vast plateaus, and studied 
its systems of rivers and mountain ranges. Its most Northern 
point is Cape Bon in the Mediterranean near the center of the 
North Temperate Zone. Starting from that point you cross the 
entire tropics southward into the center of the South Temperate 
Zone, and have traveled fully six thousand miles before you have 
traversed the full length of the Continent. Beginning at Cape 
Verde on the West, travel eastward across the Sudan through the 
Valleys of the Upper Nile and its branches, and Southern Abyssinia 
to Cape Guadafui, and you have journeyed nearly five thousand 
miles. The continent has twelve and a half million square miles 
of territory, nearly three times the size of the United States. You 
can place all of Europe and China and India and the United States 
on the Continent of Africa and yet have room to spare. North 
Africa has as fine a climate as Southern Europe, and so has South 
Africa ; while the vast plateaus in many parts, ranging from three 
to seven thousand feet above the sea, are healthful and capable of 
maintaining great populations. These facts, and they are only a 
few of many bearing on the physical features of the Continent, 
indicate that when Victor Hugo prophesied, not only that the nine- 
teenth century would make a man of the Negro, but would make 
a v/orld out of Africa, he had the vision of a true seer. 

The partition of Africa among a few European nations, during 
the past forty years, and the establishment of governments well 
organized and efficient, and the inauguration and successful admin- 
istration of Continental Colonial Empires in so brief a time, form 
a series of events unparalleled in the history of any other section 
of the world. France lost her Colonial prestige in North America 
but she has regained it on the African Continent, where her Colonial 
possessions include territory one and a half times as large as the 

IIS 



Il6 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

United States. Along the Mediterranean from Morocco to Tripoli 
she has four cities with an aggregate population of nearly 700,000. 
She is reclaiming vast areas of the Sahara Desert. North Africa 
was the richer half of the Roman Empire for six hundred years, 
but under the French Government the population and the wealth 
of that section is to be far greater. Great Britain has organized 
a new Anglo-Saxon nation in the Southern end of the Continent 
with a territory as large as the United States east of the Mississippi 
River. All the British colonies of Africa make up an empire as 
large in extent as the United States. The wealth and prosperity 
of old Egypt will soon be vastly greater under British Rule; while 
the Valleys of the Nile, a territory as large as the Mississippi Val- 
ley, are being opened up to the world. Germany in Africa is more 
than twenty times as large as Germany in Europe, while Belgium 
and Portugal have also great territories. The Republic of Liberia 
is taking a new lease of life under the friendly advice and co- 
operation of a commission representing the United States, Great 
Britain, Germany and France. Abyssinia, the Switzerland of 
Africa, has a great future. On what other continent can be found 
greater prophecies for the future? The difficulties incident to 
tropical climates are being rapidly overcome. Applied science in 
medicine, and agriculture are solving the problems of health and 
overcoming the parasitic difficulties incident to plant and animal 
life in the tropics. 

These foreign nations which in the providence of God have com- 
mitted to them the destiny of this vast continent with its more than 
160,000,000 people, as a rule are led by men of great ability and 
high character ; who are not only ambitious to win success as ad- 
ministrators, in the development of nations that should be well 
governed ; but who recognize the proper relations of government 
with the vast native populations. I have been to capitals on the 
continent of nearly all of these Colonies, and have met personally 
their representative men, and I have also had personal interviews 
with prime ministers and others of the home government at their 
capitals in Europe ; and I have been called to testify before com- 
missions of these governments as to native affairs, and have watched 
with profound interest and gratification their manifest purpose to 
bring- the blessings of modern civilization to barbaric Africa. There 
have been mistakes but they are being rectified, and I think it could 
be safely said as a rule all over the continent there is a purpose 
to improve the intellectual, moral and social conditions of all 
classes of people, and that especially the obligation of the white 
man to his black brother is being recognized. 

It is impossible to form any just conception of what the wealth 
of Africa is. Already it supplies the world every year with two 
hundred million dollars of gold. This is half of the world's sup- 
ply, and will continue to increase. Ninety-five per cent, of the 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS II7 

diamonds of the world come from Africa. In Southern Congo 
and Northern Rhodesia are the greatest copper deposits in the 
world. Already millions of dollars have been expended there in 
opening the mines, and thousands of tons are shipped daily by 
rail to the sea. The vast forests of the continent are giving the 
world most of its mahogany, while the palm oil trees cover vast 
areas the wealth of which cannot be estimated. The agricultural 
possibilities of Africa are beyond computation. Every government 
has its up-to-date Department of Agriculture, in nearly every case 
modeled after the Department of Agriculture in Washington. The 
Transvaal pays a man and his wife five thousand dollars a year and 
all their living expenses, to teach the people of that State how to 
raise corn, and what can be made out of it in the way of food. 
The late Mr. Rhodes bought forty farms from two thousand to 
one hundred thousand acres each, extending from Cape Town two 
thousand miles northeast to the Zambesi, and placed an American 
graduate from one of our Agricultural schools over nearly all of 
them, and furnished him with money and said, " Now, teach the 
people how to farm, Dutch, English and native blacks." This is 
an illustration of the spirit and purpose of the nations of Europe 
which control Africa through their splendid leaders, to develop the 
resources from the soil of the whole continent. This policy alone, 
to the intelligent student of history, demonstrates that the agri- 
cultural wealth of Africa is to be marvelous in the coming years. 
It means increasing wealth after all the mines have been deprived 
of their wealth of gold and diamonds and copper and coal. It 
means employment to the five hundred millions of people who 
will certainly inhabit that continent in the near future. 

Africa has had a wonderful share in the development of methods 
of communication which have grown so marvelously between con- 
tinents and nations the past fifty years. Already more than two 
hundred steamships are engaged in African trade alone. They 
represent every important maritime city in Europe, ^n this Amer- 
ica has but little showing because her merchant marine is so small. 
These ships vary in size from palatial steamers to ordinary cargo 
boats, and every year these representatives of commerce and mes- 
sengers of progress belt the continent. Along with their commer- 
cial activity they transport the missionary forces of the Church, 
the representatives of science and all the forces for the intellectual 
and social uplift of humanity. 

The fact that the rivers of Africa are not navigable for com- 
merce except for a limited extent has been one of the chief barriers 
preventing a settlement of Africa. The heart of the continent as 
a whole is a vast plateau often several thousand feet above the sea. 
All its great rivers have had their beginnings somewhere on these 
plateaus, and have had to make their way to the sea by a series 
of falls, of which the Falls of the Zambesi are the greatest. The 



Il8 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

railway age in which we live is overcoming this continental diffi- 
culty. The dream of a railway from Cape Town to Cairo six 
thousand miles is to be realized. More than two-thirds of it has 
already been built. Lines from the west to the east coast are 
being constructed to connect with the center line. Already the 
railroads of Africa are nearing 20,000 miles, and in the near future 
this continental system 6,000 miles long, with its many branches, 
will be one of the railway marvels of the whole world. In the 
meantime we must continue to recognize the wonderful results 
of transportation by native carriers. The native African of the 
better type are athletes with fine physical development as his fa- 
thers before him have been for many centuries. They carry every- 
thing upon their heads, and to-day hundreds of thousands of tons 
of African products are thus carried from vast distances in the 
interior to the sea-ports of both coasts. I have myself had cara- 
vans of these splendid black men, one of them numbering seventy- 
five. They carried me and my white companions in hammocks, 
and also our tents, food and supplies for my mission stations on 
their heads, for hundreds of miles. It is a wonderful fact when 
we remember that only a few years ago but little of the continent 
of Africa w^as known to the outside world, while to-day one can 
go, and articles of commerce can be transported with safety to 
every part of that vast section of the world. 

These statements concerning the continent of Africa are suffi- 
cient to impress every thoughtful person that the movements on 
that continent affecting the uplift of its multiplied millions make 
up a large part of the World movement which is profoundly stir- 
ring the leaders of the Christian Church to-day. 

To the Christian student the modem discovery of Africa by 
the explorer, and the giving to it organized government by states- 
men, and the development of commerce, means preparation of the 
way for the Kingdom of God among the millions of various races 
upon that continent. For thousands of years the larger part of 
Africa was unknown to the outside world. Civilization made its 
way Westward, round the world, and only touched its Northern 
borders. Many attempts at exploration along its coasts came to 
grief, resulting in the loss of ships, and many thousands of lives. 
Africa's Day had not come, for continents have their birthdays 
as well as nations and men. God would not open the way to the 
heart of Africa until the institution of slavery was gone in every 
civilized nation, and until the Christian Church had come to grasp 
in her faith nations and races of ever\' clime and color. The call 
of our Lord to his Church, challenging the redemption of Africa, 
is clear, insistent and powerful. Slowly but surely the followers ^ 

of Christ are heeding that call. Already missionary movements ^': 

among the barbaric heathen and Mohammedans are multiplying : 

and success is growing. There are nearly one hundred organiza- I 



THE NEW VOICE IN IL\CE ADJUSTMENTS 1 19 

tions engaged in missionary effort in Africa. Of these more than 
fifty have representatives in the large sections of the Protestant 
world, the United States, Great Britain and Northern Europe. 
Many of the smaller organizations, some of them represented by 
a few splendid men and women, are doing excellent work. As a 
rule the governments are cooperative. Some of them, especially 
Great Britain, are granting lands for mission centers and subsidies 
for educational work. Still as compared with the vast fields occu- 
pied, the Christian Church has yet not awakened to her responsi- 
bilities to that continent. The menace of Mohammedanism is im- 
pending and serious. More than fifty millions of the followers of 
the false prophet are native Africans, Arabic and Berber, Beduin 
and native black. North Africa is the intellectual, progressive cen- 
ter of the Mohammedan world. Moslem progress among the na- 
tive blacks is such as to threaten the capture of the whole continent 
in the comparatively near future unless the Christian Church mul- 
tiphes her resources in sending in thousands of missionaries, well 
equipped to spread the Gospel broadcast, and preempt the terri- 
tory. The barbaric native Africans everywhere receive the gospel 
gladly, and if the Christian Church would only see her opportunity 
and furnish the men and the women, and the money needed, one 
hundred million could be soon led to Christ. 

The immediate and insistent duty of Christian leaders in Amer- 
ica is to see to it that there is a much larger and better organized 
study of the African situation. Beginnings have been made in white 
colleges and to some extent in Negro educational centers, but there 
must be more. Missionary ideals and responsibility have not yet 
largely gripped the masses of our Negro leaders. In every school 
of advanced grade there should be study classes led by the best 
Christian leaders who grasp the world problems as they affect con- 
tinents, races, and advanced Christian civilization. In these classes 
should be gathered young men and women of high character, and 
am.bition, of mental caliber and religious conviction, ready to give 
the necessary years to preparation for leadership. Untrained mis- 
sionary leaders are of but little value in Mohammedan fields. In 
the barbaric native black fields, native helpers and Evangelists are 
being rapidly raised up, who can care for a large part of the work 
of organizing stations and teaching by example and precept among 
the raw heathen. It is surprising how quickly they are able to 
do well many phases of this work. The need is for trained leaders 
in methods of teaching and missionary enterprises, who acquire 
languages easily, who can command the respect of the masses, 
direct the native leaders, and worthily represent the Christian 
Church in society and in its relation to government officials. The 
establishment of centers of teaching and training, as has been sug- 
gested in the educational centers among our Negro population, is 
of prime importance. One hundred men and women advanced in 



120 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

general education in such centers, under the best leadership for 
five years, dating from this hour, would mark a new epoch in the 
relation of the Negroes of America to the whole African situation. 



THE RESPONSE OF AFRICA TO THE GOSPEL 

W. H. SHEPPARD. F.R.G.S., 

Louisville, Ky., Assistant Pastor at the Southern Presbyterian Institutional 

Church for Negroes. 

THE STORY OF THE GIRL WHO ATE HER MOTHER 1 



Can you imagine anything so terrible as that? Think of a little 
girl sitting at a feast where her mother was cooked and eaten 
and herself eating a part of her own mother's flesh. It is too 
horrible for civilized boys and girls to think about. And that is 
what often happened among the heathen African people before our 
missionaries, at the risk of being themselves killed and eaten, went 
out to them and taught them about Jesus Christ and how it grieved 
ITim to have them do such dreadful deeds. 

In our Christian land we are taught to honor our mothers and 
God has given us a great promise with the Commandment which 
teaches us to love and honor our parents. 

This is how it happened that the little Ntumba committed such 
a crime and how she learned that it was wrong: Twenty or more 
years ago, Mr. Samuel Norval Lapsley, a young Presbyterian Mis- 
sionary, the first white man to penetrate that dangerous but popu- 
lous valley of the Kassai River in Central Africa, farther south- 
west from the sea-coast than even the great Livingstone had trav- 
eled, was sitting out in front of his tent teaching the natives who 
belonged to a tribe called the Baketti. 

Suddenly a native runner rushed up and told Mr. Lapsley that 
some Cannibals who were passing through the forest had killed 
a woman, one of their captives, and had eaten her and that the 
woman had a little daughter who had also eaten some of the moth- 
er's flesh. Of course Mr. Lapsley was horrified, and questioned 
the runner closely and wondered what could be dore to remedy 
such a state of afl^airs. The natives told him that he could talk 
to the Cannibals themselves, for they would pass that way. 

Just at dusk a long line of tired slaves, exhausted with their long 
march, passed slowly by Mr. Lapsley's tent, and immediately he 
approached the chief who was driving them to his own village, 
and asked him to halt his people for a short talk. This he did not 
like to do, but he grudgingly complied and leaned upon his gun 
and listened to what the strange foreigner had to say. 

"Why have you killed and eaten one of your prisoners?" Mr. 
Lapsley gently asked. It was a daring thing to ask a proud chief 



.1 



{ 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS I2I 

for a reason for anything that he did, and especially to show any 
interest in what was done to a slave. 

" The woman's feet were swollen and she could walk no more. 
We always kill the slaves that cannot march any longer; it is our 
custom," explained the chief. 

" I am told that the woman had a little six-year-old daughter who 
also ate of the flesh of her mother," said Mr. Lapsley. 

" There is the child," said the chief. 

" Will you give the girl to me and let me make a good woman 
of her?" asked Mr. Lapsley. 

" I will exchange her for a goat," said the chief. Mr. Lapsley 
said that he would give the chief some foreign cloth for her, and 
the chief agreed to turn over the little girl, Ntumba, to the mis- 
sionary. 

So Mr. Lapsley had a native woman take the little Ntumba to 
the river and bathe her body and put a nice clean cloth on her, 
and Ntumba was taught with the other children of the village, and 
began to show a real interest in the Sunday school. In time she 
forgot about the horrible feast she had taken part in. 

Then a change came over Ntumba. She grew wicked and loved 
to steal and to tell lies. She had a perfect mania for peanuts. She 
would leave her bed in the night and slip into somebody's peanut 
field and steal all the peanuts that she could. It was strange that 
she was not taken for an animal in the darkness and run through 
with a spear, for she was caught many times and brought back to 
the missionaries. Then when she could not steal any peanuts, she 
would tear a strip oflf her cloth which was her dress, and exchange 
it for peanuts and dried caterpillars. It was almost impossible to 
keep Ntumba in cloth, in spite of many and severe corrections. 
She used up more cloth than half a dozen other children. 

But we who have the wonderful story of Jesus and His love, 
know what great things it can accomplish. It " can change the 
leopard's spots and melt the heart of stone," and so the lessons 
that Ntumba had learned from the kind missionaries began to bear 
fruit. She was converted and took the Lord as her Master and 
tried to live as He would have her live. She put away her bad 
habits ; she did not lie and steal any more ; she began to study and 
to learn the Bible lessons, and soon had memorized all of the hymns 
that had been translated into her language, and many parts of the 
Scriptures. She took pains with her clothes, and kept herself neat 
and nice. She who had been a naked little savage, even took care 
of her teeth, the teeth which had eaten human flesh. She learned 
to sew and helped to make the garments for the other children. ■ 

Is it not wonderful — the power of God's Spirit in the hearts 
of sinful people? What unbelievable changes it can bring about. 
When Ntumba was sixteen years old, she led the heathen women 
in prayer meeting and herself taught in the Sunday school. Many 



122 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

times she would tell the people how the devil had filled her heart 
and taught her tongue to lie, her hands to steal, and her voice to 
sing evil songs, but that God had delivered her out of his power. 

When Ntumba was eighteen years old she married a native Chris- 
tian man and together they moved to a village called Dima, about 
four hundred miles from the mission, and there they began to teach 
and to preach and to Christianize the poor, ignorant heathen. In 
March of 1910, forty men and women were received into the Church 
on the profession of their faith ; forty thoroughly consecrated con- 
verts, all led to Jesus by a small band of Christians from Luebo, 
and Ntumba, the cannibal girl, who when she found out the love 
of the Saviour of the world, at once began to tell others about 
Him. If a poor heathen girl can do so much to show her appre- 
ciation of her Lord's great gift, what ought we to do, who have 
had years and years of life in a Christian land, and who have en- 
joyed all of the privileges that Christian fathers and mothers and 
friends can give us? 

A YOUNG HUNTER 

Away ofif across the seas, in the very heart of Central Africa, 
so close to the equator that the sun shines long and hot, in the land 
of the great jungles and the dense forests, the land where there 
is no twilight and where for many centuries the light of the Gos- 
pel and of civilization had not penetrated, there lived a heathen 
boy, Benwenya. Strong, brave and manly, he lived a wild life, 
never dreaming of the things that Christian boys have to make 
them live happy lives, but like boys the world over, Benwenya loved 
to go on long hunts. Of course he did not own such a thing as 
an air rifle, nor a " twenty-two," but he had a weapon that was 
just as sure and just as deadly. 

Benwenya's weapon was a bow and a quiver full of steel-pointed 
arrows, every arrow tipped in poison, and woe to the " game " that 
got in the way of one of those arrows. Benwenya did not hunt 
any of your rabbits and squirrels and coons, he went for big game 
and his aim was steady and his arrow sped straight. There was 
not an animal that roamed the jungle that Benwenya had not brought 
down. The dainty antelope, the huge lion, the fierce tiger, even the 
jumbo of the forest, great clumsy-footed elephants, a regular circus 
parade of them, had felt the tip of Benwenya's arrow. Many times 
he would shoot far up into the top of the tall trees and bring down 
a chattering monkey. Instead of making him dance to the music 
of the hand-organ, as monkeys do in this country, Benwenya would 
eat him ; and it was no wonder that Benwenya grew round and fat, 
for he ate many monkeys. 

Beside his bow, Benwenya owned a dog which followed him every- 
where and his dog was stranger than his weapon; his dog could 
not bark. You would almost think of a dog without a tail to wag, 



. THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 123 

as a dog without a bark ; but not a dog in all that land could bark. 
Benwenya had been taught that years ago the leopards and the 
dogs had a terrible battle and the dogs whipped the leopards, and 
since that time the dog mothers taught their baby dogs that they 
must not bark or the leopards would know where to find them and 
would come and kill them. 

In order that Benwenya and all of the other African boys could 
tell where their dogs were when they were on a hunt, they had 
been taught to make a cocoanut-like bell scooped out of a block of 
wood with a stone placed in the hollow. This wooden bell was tied 
around the loins of the dog and as he ran the stone would rattle 
and Benwenya would know where his good dog " Tuala " was, as he 
followed the trail of the deer and other wild animals through the 
woods. Tuala was a fine name for a dog for it means " bring," 
and you may be sure that Tuala lived up to his name. When the 
big town drum boomed out a roll call, and the ivory horns blew, 
Benwenya and Tuala would run through the village, the boy bare- 
headed, barefooted and bare to the waist, all armed with bow and 
arrows, spear and dagger, in company with hundreds of other 
huntsmen, in hot pursuit of a hyena or a leopard. 

All the days were the same to this boy and his friends, and he 
did not see why he could not hunt on God's holy Sabbath day. 
And like hundreds of boys in Christian countries, Benwenya didn't 
see any harm in doing what he pleased on Sunday. But after a 
while, he would follow the other half naked boys into the little 
mud church to hear the missionary talk. When we made them 
welcome and asked them to " sit near " they would refuse. They 
preferred to sit close to the door, so that if anything happened 
they would be the first out. Many times, in the midst of a church 
service, the dogs on the outside would begin to fight and immedi- 
ately the whole congregation would rush out to the dog-fight only 
to return when the fight was ended. Again the war drum would 
beat and in the twinkling of an eye, the church was vacated, every- 
body gone, and soon they were ofif to repel an advancing enemy. 

That was a wonderful story that Benwenya heard in the church, 
and soon he joined the class of boys who were being trained in the 
Christian faith. This class was called the catechumen class and 
it met for study every morning. Then he joined the Sunday 
School and always he was bringing new boys to swell his class and 
hear the story. Benwenya continued to hunt during the week, 
but Sunday found him in his place in church. His old friends and 
fellow hunters made fun of him and tried to get him to go out 
with them on the Sabbath day as he was accustomed to do, but he 
stood firm and refused to break the Sabbath after he came to 
understand that it was God's day. 

For a whole year Benwenya remained faithful to the teaching 
of the missionary, and then he realized that he was a sinner and 



124 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

that God had sent His own Son to save him, and then he did the 
bravest deed of his whole Hfe. He gave his heart to God and ac- 
cepted Christ as his Saviour and joined the church. The whole 
town was wildly excited, for Benwenya was the first of the great 
Bakuba tribe to be converted, — the very first one to take the 
Christian's God as his God. 

You may be sure that he did not have an easy time. His parents 
were very angry ; they were afraid that some terrible disaster would 
befall them because their son worshiped the Christian God. They 
would not allow him to eat out of their clay vessels. He had to 
borrow pots and bowls from friends who were not so superstitious. 
Benwenya endured much for Christ's sake. He had a strong, true 
heart and had learned to love the Lord. Before many months had 
passed, more men and women of the Bakuba tribe followed the 
boy's noble example and joined the church. 

As soon as Benwenya became a Christian, he wanted to tell the 
Gospel story to his people, so he attended the little day school and 
learned to read and write and to understand the wonderful truths 
in the Bible, and that old, old story of Jesus and His love. In the 
course of time he became a teacher, and so full of enthusiasm was 
he, that he was sent as an evangelist to his home town, a town 
farther inland, Yaba. He took with him his wife, a girl who was 
one of the converts and an intelligent sincere Christian. 

Then came the crowning joy of this boy's life. The great king 
of the Bakubas, the Lukenga, sent for him and his helpers to visit 
him at the capital city ; and with his wife and his Gospel band, 
he went, and for weeks, preached and prayed and sang and told 
the story that he loved so well to the great ruler of the king- 
dom. 

Hundreds of poor, blind, wretched, native Africans have been .| 

converted to the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of this | 

young man who in his boyhood was a great hunter of wild animals ] 

and who is now a greater hunter than ever before, for he is hunting ; 

for the lost souls of men and women, that he may bring them to ': 

the Saviour for forgiveness and for salvation. v 

j 

AN AFRICAN DANIEL — KATEMBA THE BUGLER i 

Long before the " Good News " was taken beyond the seas to 
the land of Dark Africa, the people spent their lives in dread and 
fear of some terrible thing happening to them. They never be- 
lieved that anyone died a natural death ; someone had always be- j. 
witched them, and the person suspected of causing the death was ' 
compelled to drink a cup of poison to prove his innocence. If he 
died, he was guilty; if he lived, he was innocent. If crops and 
houses were destroyed by thunderstorms, someone had called out 
the " evil spirits " and someone had to die for it. Life was any- 
thing but happy, and to add to the sorrows of the people, the coun- 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 125 

try was governed by the Belgian soldiers who were cruel and 
hard-hearted, and had no care for the poor ignorant natives. 

Of all of the tribes, the Baluba is the most superstitious. Ka- 
temba, a young Baluba native, was a bugler for the Belgian army 
and went with the soldiers when they went to fight. Katemba was 
also a chief of one of the Baluba villages, a man of power among 
his own people. During one of his raids with the army, Katemba 
visited the Presbyterian Mission at Luebo, and followed the people 
to the church and heard the wonderful story of a loving God who 
had sent His Son to seek and to save the poor lost sorrowing souls 
of the Africans. This was almost beyond Katemba's belief, and 
when he had returned to his own village, he sent messengers back 
to Luebo and to the missionaries there, to send them a man to 
teach and to preach to his people about the Christian's God who 
loved them so that He gave His Son for them. An evangelist was 
sent and a school opened, and young and old, men and women, 
boys and girls, all went daily to church and listened to the Gospel 
story told by the evangelist and his wife. Just think how tired 
big people and little people in America get when they have to go 
to church for an hour or two on Sundays. They do not appreciate 
the wonderful gift of God's Son, do they? Well, Katemba and his 
people joined the training class and the more he learned about the 
Christian religion, the more anxious he was to become a Christian ; 
and when the missionary thought that he was ready, they took him 
into the church and a happy man was he. 

Katemba had learned a number of Gospel Hymns and in the 
evening, as he sat out on his little veranda, he would play them 
on his bugle so that his people might hear. And when they heard, 
the people would say, " Listen ! Listen ! Katemba is blowing his 
trumpet for his new God." 

Then Katemba wearied of the Belgian army. He was a Chris- 
tian soldier and he longed to give up pillage and killing, and to 
teach his people the arts of peace. But the Belgians were angry. 
They told him that he had a sunstroke, which meant that he was 
crazy. They made complaint against him, and then disgraced him 
by sending him to Lusambo, the Government's headquarters, a ten 
days' journey, to be tried and persecuted by the state officers. This 
was hard for a proud chief to bear, — to be sent off as a prisoner. 
He was kept for a long time and the officers threatened him with 
terrible punishment if he did not give up his religion. But Ka- 
temba, with proud spirit and strong heart, answered all their threats 
with this : " You can kill my body, but you can't hurt my soul." 
And for all their persecutions, he never recanted, nor wavered in 
his new faith. 

At length his missionary friends heard of his trouble, and sent 
letters to him from far away Luebo, telling him to stand steadfast 
for Christ, and encouraged him and told him not to despair. Then 



126 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

they sent letters to the State officials, written in French, letting them 
know that if anything happened to Katemba, that the world should 
hear of their cruelty and their injustice. After a long time the 
Belgians allowed Katemba to return to his home and to his own 
people. What a great time of rejoicing it was and his people gave 
him a royal welcome, and Katemba felt repaid for all of the trials 
that he had passed through for Christ's sake. 

So he built a new place of worship and many members were added 
to it. Then Katemba longed to learn more about the Bible and be 
able to teach the people more; so he made the long journey to 
Luebo, 150 miles, on foot, braving all the dangers of forest and 
plain, to study with the missionaries there. They gave him much 
instruction and advice and soon he was a well prepared evangelist 
and returned to his people to devote his life to work for the 
Master. And what a blessing has been poured out upon Katemba's 
work. His community is the best evangelized in all of the great 
Kassai Valley, and Katemba continues to blow his bugle ; but he 
no longer blows for a savage army, but he blows for recruits for 
God's army. 

A LITTLE ROBBER WHO FOUND A GREAT TREASURE 
The Story of a Bad Boy. 

Far away in the great Kassai Valley of Central Africa where 
the leopard hides in the shelter of the great forests, and the deadly 
boa constrictor glides through the tall grass, — in that land where as 
soon as night falls wnld beasts of every kind go forth to hunt and 
to kill, there passed one day a band of cannibals, the horrid, blood- 
thirsty Zappo-Zaps, who sharpen their teeth till they look like 
cross-cut saws, and who eat the flesh of human beings. 

Traveling with them were two baby boys, thin, emaciated little 
fellows, one four and the other six years old. The father and the 
mother of the children had been murdered and it would not be 
many days until the two boys would meet the same fate. It hap- 
pened (except nothing ever just happens in God's kingdom, it is 
all part of a plan), that the cannibals passed near one of the few 
mission stations that had been opened in that country, and the 
missionaries begged the savage chief to leave the children with them 
at the mission and let them care for them and make strong men 
of them. The heart of the chief softened, and he gave the poor 
naked little heathens to the "God-Man," as they called the mis- 
sionar}^ Their new friends fed and clothed them and made them 
comfortable in every way, and because the boys could not remember 
their names, they were called John and Willie. From the day that 
they were taken from the cannibals, they began to grow strong and 
lively, and were as full of mischief as any American four-year-olds. 
There was not anything that they did not get into, but one day 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 127 

they went too far. In the missionary's back yard a big tame mon- 
key was tied and Willie gave the poor creature a hard whipping. 
The monkey could not resent the beating just then, but it treasured 
the thought of it in its heart, and one day it broke its chain, found 
Willie, threw him down and bit a piece out of his leg; and before 
help could reach him, the monkey fled to the forest where he was 
afterwards found and shot. Everything was done for Willie, but 
in a short while he died from blood poison ; and in the cool of the 
evening, they buried him, far from the home of his father, with a 
service of prayer and song and Bible reading, all in the native 
language. John and his playmates seemed deeply grieved for 
awhile, but it was not long until John forgot how Willie's cruel act 
had caused his death, and he grew worse every day till he was the 
terror of all the village. He cared for nobody; he would not help 
the other boys with the work of the station, and above all things 
he loved to fight. His heart seemed to be made of stone. Nothing 
that his good friends had done for him, nor anything that they 
could say had any effect on him. And they often wondered if 
they had saved him from death by the cannibals to lose him in a 
worse way. 

Night after night, John would startle the neighborhood with 
some fresh piece of mischief. One time the awful noise of chick- 
ens cackling, roosters crowing and hens squawking brought every- 
body out to the hen house, sure that a boa constrictor was in the 
house, and with gun ready to shoot the intruder, the missionary 
found just in time that it was John crouched over in the corner 
with a big fat hen hidden under his loin cloth. He refused to 
come out and not until he was pulled out, fighting and kicking, did 
he give up his hen. 

Another evening at sunset, as the family was resting on the 
porch after the day's work, a noise in the grass attracted their at- 
tention, and again they supposed that a boa constrictor was chasing 
something; and running to the spot, found John struggling to hold 
a great big duck that he had succeeded in slipping up on. The 
drake was beating him viciously in the face with his strong wings, 
but John held on and not until he found that he had been dis- 
covered, would he, unwillingly, release his hold on the duck. John 
expected to have a good supper of roast duck. 

The story of John's robberies would fill a book. He would not 
do a thing in the day time, but the moment night came, John went 
to work. He prowled over the whole station, and just to keep him 
from being shot in someone's hen house, or being stolen by a 
leopard before he could steal the leopard, the authorities of the 
village built a little house and concluded to fasten him up in it 
every night. The first night that John was locked in his little 
house, the town slept sweetly, feeling that for one night they knew 
where John was. But, alas, for all their plans ! Early the next 



128 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

morning some hunters found John asleep in the forest and a pile 
of chicken feathers beside him told the story. The wily fellow had 
dug a hole under the walls of his house with his bare hands, and 
had slipped out and visited a hen roost and had gone into the 
forest, roasted and eaten his stolen chicken and had curled up and 
gone to sleep in the ashes. 

When patience was almost exhausted and the missionaries al- 
most despaired of making anything of the boy, he astonished every- 
body by asking for some socks to hide his feet, from which every 
toe but his big toe had been eaten off by " jiggers," an insect like 
a flea. 

Then a wonderful thing happened to the boy. The God he had 
been refusing to listen to for so long, spoke again to him in a still 
small voice, and John listened. The prayers that had been made 
for him so long were answered, and John started to the mission 
school, Sunday and every day ; and although the other boys laughed 
and made fun of him, he attended regularly. Then they saw that 
he was in earnest. He joined the training class that prepares the 
natives to join the church, called the catechumen class. And in 
that land where they have been without the Gospel so long, they 
have church every day ; they cannot hear its wonderful story often 
enough. And John, who had given the village so much trouble, 
was there every day. He asked that a bamboo house be built for 
him in the missionary's yard, and he who had been the thorn in 
the flesh became so industrious, so honest, and so thoughtful, that 
he was given entire charge of the tame monkeys and of the chick- 
ens, and never was one missing. He loved to do the most menial 
tasks: help the cook, scrub the pots and pans, and work in the 
garden. He was a new John, truly. 

At the end of a year of training in the catechumen class, John 
gave such a clear testimony, that he was taken into the church and 
baptized. And John found a treasure more precious than rubies 
and more lasting than gold. His face shone with happiness ; his 
heart and his voice sang the praises of the loving Lord Jesus who 
had forgiven his wild wicked life and had given him a new heart 
and a right spirit, and he led the band of church singers. 

He had a talent for carpentry, and learned to make chairs, sofas 
and beds, and made them so well that he was made the head in- 
structor of the big Industrial School at Ibange. The missionaries 
felt repaid for all the trouble that they had had in making a poor, 
weak, wicked boy with God's help, into a noble Christian man who 
used his life to make good Christian men of other boys in that 
heathen land, where there are so few teachers and so many beg- 
ging to be taught the wonderful story of Jesus and His love. 



I 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 129 



THE SOUTHERN NEGRO'S DEBT AND RESPONSI- 
BILITY TO AFRICA 

JOHN W. GILBERT, 

Birmingham, Ala., President Miles Memorial College, Colored Methodist 

Episcopal Church. 

This meeting is none other than an epoch-making endeavor with 
the avowed purpose of bringing about such a missionary awakening 
among the Negro students of this country as to cause them to study 
seriously their obHgations to Africa. If possible, it is to find young 
Christian men and women in this gathering, or as its results, who 
will go to that land to help Christianize it in every sense of that 
word. Therefore, I am more than glad to be identified with it. 

Once for all be it said that from nearly every viewpoint the 
prepared Southern Negro is the very best Negro, perhaps the very 
best person in the world, for African missionary work. This is 
true not only for climatic and purely physiological reasons, but be- 
cause the Negro of the South has larger opportunities for develop- 
ment along all lines of Christian civilization than he has anywhere 
else in the world. Here are, according to the best available sta- 
tistics, nine-tenths of all his churches, nearly all his schools, and 
most of his best homes, farms, and money. His opportunities to 
learn and ply most of the mechanical trades and professions are 
found in well nigh every section of the South. Whatever may be 
said against the South, it is here that the Negro flourishes best. 
Thank God, more and more the spirit and work of Christian co- 
operation between white and black people of the South in Church 
and school are growing every day that we move further forward 
from the " bloody 6o's." Southern whites and Southern blacks are 
working together in Church and school for the uplift of the weaker 
brother both here and in Africa. And so it ought to be. Yea, 
more. So it must be, if we are ever to reach that proper adjust- 
ment of our inter-racial relationships which we call the " Race 
Problem." Christ at work with white and black men is what my 
country here and my fatherland over the seas are praying and work- 
ing for to-day. Others ought to help us. We must help our- 
selves. 

Now, in view of the advantages which the Negroes enjoy in the 
South where eight millions of them live, what are some of the 
debts which they owe to Africa and its 161,000,000 of heathens and 
pagans? Before enumerating any of these debts, we must fix well 
in our minds the Christian principle that the opportunity to pay 
them is the unvarying measure of our responsibility so to do. We 
Southern Negroes are responsible to God and good men for Africa's 
redemption according as we have opportunity. 

The least binding debt that we owe Africa is that, because we 



130 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

are descendants of that Continent we ought, in the spirit of the 
descendants of all other lands, to do whatever we can for its uplift. 
This is race pride. It is natural. The most binding debt that we 
owe Africa and all men comes from Christ : " Go ye into all the 
world and preach the gospel to every creature." This is the Christ- 
love. Nature and law make men into races, and nations. Grace 
came by Jesus Christ, and grace makes us " neither Greek nor 
Jew — Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free : but Christ is all and 
in all." 

" All men are equal in God's sight. 

There is no black, there is no white. 

The petty distinctions of race and caste 

Are shriveled and shrunk in the » 

Furnace blast of God's great love." 1 

This theory is the ideal Catholicity of Christian ethics ; neverthe- 
less, the Southern Negro is bound to pay his obligations to Africa 
first and most ; for that is very nearly the only mission field in 
which he has opportunity to labor. His white brother can go as a 
missionary to all heathen and pagan lands of the earth. However, 
it yet remains, that the measure of our obligation is in direct pro- 
portion to our opportunity. 

What are some of the obligations that we American Negroes are 
under to Africa? The foremost seems to me to be the giving to 
the African a Negro ideal of all that is best in Christianity. When 
a man sees another of his own race who lives a true life and does 
a noble deed the chords of all his being are stretched and attuned 
by inspiration toward similar attainments. He sees his own future 
self mirrored in his ideal. No people can reach their best who have -j 

not inspiration from faith in themselves. This is righteous race 
pride. This is the background whence hope is projected into the 
future. 

We owe it to the African to teach him that his continent and 
his people had proud representatives in the early morning of sacred 
and profane history. Let him know that Egypt was introduced 
into history by dynasties of Hamitic, most probably Negro, kings; 
that hoary Mt. Berkel and Meroe, two large cities down the Nile, 
peopled and governed solely by wooly haired Negroes before 
Homer or Virgil sang the fall of Troy, had reached the acme of 
the world's sculpture and architecture. The African must learn 
that, omitting the Jew, his country and countrymen were more 
closely connected with biblical history than any other land and 
people. Africa has figured next to Palestine in " Sacred Story." 
Abraham, Jacob, Israel, Moses, Aaron, the pillar of cloud by day, 
the pillar of fire by night, the crossing of the Red Sea — Oh, how 
many men and miracles of God found their stage of action in the 
black man's land ! Isaiah prophesied of it, " The land of the 
rustling of wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia." Ebed- 



* 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 131 

melech, the Ethiopian, received from God the reward of deliverance 
from peril for rescuing the prophet Jeremiah from a miry dungeon 
into which his own countrymen had cast him. " Africa cradled 
the Messianic race " thousands of years before it sheltered the 
infant Son of God. An African bore the cross of Christ. Africans, 
" dwellers in Egypt and the parts of Libya about Gyrene," were 
present at Pentecost. The book of Acts tells of two Africans that 
were leaders, a prophet and a teacher, in " the first Missionary 
Church." I pass by the many eminent African scholars and Church 
Fathers connected with early Church History. Nobody can by 
example more effectively teach the Negro his connection with the 
Bible and the possibilities of his own development under Christi- 
anity than the Negro himself. The native Africans have faith in 
the white man. They believe he can do anything. But they need 
to have faith in themselves and knowledge of themselves as a once 
great race. The Negroes of this enlightened country owe it to 
them to teach them that, although the fortuitous events of history, 
such as the slave trade and the fire and sword of Mohammed, have 
sunk their land into the darkest vice and degradation during the 
last ten or twelve centuries, nevertheless, according to biblical story 
and Church History, the Africans are one of heaven's most highly 
favored peoples. By nature the American Negroes — only the very 
best of them, I mean — are better prepared to do this work than 
any other people on earth. 

Evangelization alone is not what the Southern Negro owes to 
Africa. But since all the virtues of Christ should enter into all 
forms of human activities and human relationships, and since true 
Christianity fosters the highest industrial, intellectual and spiritual 
culture, we owe it to the African to develop him in this threefold 
manner — owe it to him in a certain sense more than do any other 
people in the world. The Southern Negro's debt to Africa is 
obligatory from every point of view. 

He ought to carry to his own " Brother in Black " industrial 
training. The ability to learn industries is native to the Africans, 
if their crude manufactures are to be taken as evidence. The 
native cloths of the Bakubas in Congo, Beige, knives, spear points, 
and many other articles made of the iron and copper of the Sankuru 
and Katanga districts, the dug-out canoes that ply the Congo and 
the Nile, the many hard woods of finest grain that constitute the 
African forests, the trees and vines that drip liquid rubber, copal, 
and oil, by day and by night, the unsurpassed fertility of the soil, 
the cassava and grain, and the very clay of the earth call to Hamp- 
ton, Tuskegee and Cheyney Institutes more loudly than to white 
schools anywhere for factories, trades and scientific agriculture. 
For obvious reasons this cry could not in the past be answered by 
us ; but more and more both in numbers and efficiency, as the op- 
portunities come, we as a race must embrace them. 



132 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS i 

God is calling for the Christian Negro physicians of the South to 
go to Africa. The present King of Belgium is offering 125,000 
francs to any physician who discovers a specific for " Sleeping \ 

Sickness," the scourge of Africa. No mission can be operated j 

without a practicing physician and a pharmacy. The " witch doc- ' 

tor " kills more than he cures with his liquids, herbs, roots, charms, j 

and fetiches. Meharry, Howard, and Leonard ought to regard this 
condition a call from Africa more directly to them than to any of 
the white medical schools. The frightful mortality of the country 
(the second largest continent in the world with only 161,000,000 
inhabitants) is due to the fact that there are generally no physicians 
there. The death rate of infants, child bearing women, and victims 
of one form and another of all the malarious and paludal diseases 
are calling for the Negro Christian physician every day. 

Then Africa is calling for teachers — especially those possessing 
linguistic ability. Besides the actual work of teaching, the Scrip- 
tures and text books, their folklore told in song and story, must 
be put into at least one of the 160 dialects of the continent, accord- 
ing to whatever part of Africa the teacher may be in. The native 
dialects must be reduced to writing. To Africa Negro scholarship 
owes this debt in the name of Christ, who is not dead on earth, but 
whose biography is being lived out by us, if so it be that we are 
his in deeds as well as in creeds. Africa needs thousands of teach- 
ers, graduates of Atlanta, Fisk, Moorehouse, Paine, and similar 
institutions ; for, besides possessing by nature the race instinct, they 
are better suited physically for work in Africa than their white 
brethren. 

Now, coming to the preacher for the African mission, the South- 
ern Negro with a burning passion for souls, a follower of Christ 
more than of creed, owes above all other men to the " Dark Conti- 
nent " to redeem its women and men from the heathen and pagan 
thralldom of polygamy to the monogamy of the Christian religion. 
Polygamous Mohammedanism above the equator along with polyga- 
mous heathenism, and therefore the wrong estimate of women and 
children almost everywhere on the continent, ought to be met and 
overthrown by Negro preachers first of all. 

The so-called civilization, tainted by the commercial corporations 
which have concessions from certain white governments to operate 
for financial profits in Africa, is worse in most respects than 
heathenism. These commercial companies exploit the land and the 
people for money, leaving in their wake rum and the prostitution of 
every innate sentiment of purity of life. Instead of bread they give 
them a stone, and instead of meat they give them a poisonous 
serpent. 

" Come over and help us " ought to be heard by Negro Christians 

first of all. 

This call has not been met heretofore by American Negroes in 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 133 

large numbers for such obvious reasons as financial inability, igno- 
rance of the real conditions in Africa, and general unpreparedness 
in education and religion for mission work. Just here the white 
man's burden of duty to our race finds its ground of obligation not 
only to Africa in America, but also to Africa in Africa. To say 
nothing of the Christian duty of the strong to help the weak, with- 
out feeling anything but love for every man of whatever color, 
without finding fault with the ways of Providence in leading us 
through the schools of slavery and repression, it does seem, even 
from a human estimate of the equation of justice between man 
and man, that, whereas American white people held us in bondage 
for at least seven generations, they ought to feel bound to cooperate 
with us for at least that length of time in our Christianization. 
That is mere human justice. But Christ teaches that so long as 
one man is able to help another to material betterment and spiritual 
uplift, it is his duty to do so. Therefore it is the duty, especially 
of the Southern Negro to seek the help of the Southern white man 
in the interest of the race here and in Africa. When these two 
can get together on the broad plane of the " fatherhood of God 
and the brotherhood of man," all other men everywhere will follow 
their Christian example. Such cooperative Christian missionary 
work here and in the Dark Continent will do more real and lasting 
good than all other agencies combined. 



THE WORKING CHURCH IN CITY AND COUNTRY 

City Missions 

Improving the Country Church 

A Neighborhood Union 






CITY MISSIONS FOR COLORED PEOPLE 
REV. JOHN LITTLE, 

Louisville, Ky., Superintendent Presbyterian Mission for Negroes. 

When I was a student I was profoundly impressed with the 
world-wide result of the " Haystack Prayer Meetings " held by the 
students for the evangelization of the world. From this meeting 
of students to-day we may expect far reaching results in the evan- 
gelization of the ten million Negroes in America. 

The work I represent had its beginning in a prayer meeting of 
students in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Louisville, 
Kentucky. Six of these students volunteered to organize a Sunday 
school for colored children. The first Sunday there were twenty- 
three colored children present and six white students. I was 
amazed to find that not a member of my class knew the name of 
Jesus Christ, and yet they were living literally under the shadows 
of the steeples of large white and colored churches. These students 
had no theory to put in practice, but they sought to meet the needs 
of the people as they found them. 

When pupils were absent on Sunday we went to their homes and 
there we found conditions that were often puzzling and appalling. 
When we found a pupil who was sick and did not have a physician, 
we called upon a Christian physician in the city to help us in our 
work. These physicians proved to be our most sympathetic friends 
and I cannot adequately describe the value of their work. I think 
we have too often forgotten the value of medicine in our religious 
work. In the foreign field we have established a church, a hospital, 
and a school, side by side, but at home, we have tried to make the 
Church alone do the work. 

Fifteen years ago, I called a physician to see a boy with appendi- 
citis. When the boy was recovering, the physician said he might 
have a baked potato. I asked the mother if she could get a baked 
potato, and she replied, " I will send the children out to see if they 
can find one." I knew that not a member of the family would 
steal. Upon close inspection, I found that they were going to the 
public market to find damaged potatoes which were thrown aside by 
the market men. We secured good potatoes, and the boy regained 
his health and strength. A member of this family is to-day work- 
ing her way through the school at Hampton, Va. 

I recall another instance where a boy asked me to secure a phy- 
sician for his mother. She responded to treatment and the boy 
was very happy when he saw his mother in good health again. He 

137 



138 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

himself became a missionary and came for me to visit all of his 
friends who were sick. This boy is to-day a student at Hampton, 
Virginia. He has saved his money and has paid his own expenses 
in school by his industry and thrift. 

An eye specialist has rendered invaluable service and has saved 
the sight of many of our pupils. Every week I see some girl in 
our industrial classes who is wearing glasses furnished by a kind- 
hearted physician. 

Seven years ago, a mother came to ask us to secure a physician 
for her son. She told us she had lost seven sons, and when we 
visited her home, we found her living in a stable with a cow, the 
mixed group occupying the first floor of the building. Her eighth 
son is still living and she and all of her children are in church twice 
each Sunday. 

I have asked ministers to preach and they have refused; I have 
asked teachers to take charge of a Sunday school class and they 
have refused; I have asked men and women for money and have 
been refused; but I have never asked a physician or surgeon to 
help us and had them refuse. 

One reason that our work has succeeded is because we have 
been willing to begin with what we had. Our first sewing school 
started with one teacher and seventeen cents invested in material. 
We now have 381 women and girls in our sewing classes. Sixty- 
five grown women come each week for instruction in sewing. Six 
hundred garments have been completed in our classes this year. 
This school started with seventeen cents invested in material, and 
we have never closed our doors. 

The boys saw the girls at work in the sewing school, and asked 
that a club be started for them. With a dollar's worth of reed we 
started a class in basketry. This class in basketry continued until 
we were able to secure a simple outfit of tools for a carpenter's shop. 

The first playground for colored children in the city of Louisville 
was started in the side yard of our mission station. Many of the 
pupils had no yards around their houses, and their only playground 
was the street. The side yard was so small that we were compelled j 

to cut the ropes short so that our swings would pass between the 
building and the fence. This yard was so crowded with children 
that we were compelled to have boys come one day, and girls an- 
other. Later on we were able to persuade the Park Board to put 
into operation three playgrounds for colored children and we were 
able to secure a larger yard next door to our mission station. Last 
summer, more than a thousand colored children were in our play- 
ground each week. 

There was no public bathhouse for colored people in the east 
end of the city. This year we were able to secure five showers and 
two bath tubs and have them installed in one of our buildings. 
The first night the Boys' Club used the bathhouse each member 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 139 

had had a shower, but we could not get them to put on their clothes. 
They spied the tubs. They had never seen a bath tub. " We want 
to get in there, too." So they had two baths each that night and 
the enthusiasm has never waned. This, I believe, is one of the 
most important steps that we have taken to improve the living con- 
ditions in the vicinity of our mission stations. 

The fact that our teaching force has grown from a group of six 
students to a group of eighty-three earnest Christian white men 
and women, proves that we have met with the endorsement of the 
white people of the city of Louisville. The fact that the number 
of our pupils has increased from twenty-three colored children to 
thirteen hundred and fifty-five different people, shows that we have 
been able in a measure to meet the needs of the colored people in 
our community. 



HOW WE MAY IMPROVE OUR COLORED CHURCHES 

IN THE COUNTRY 

T. C. WALKER, 

Gloucester C. H., Va.. Attorney-at-Law. 

The Church is a divine institution whose steady growth and de- 
velopment have been most marked since the resurrection of the 
Saviour. It is thought by many less informed that deep spiritual 
foundation is the only bedrock upon which the Church stands. 
They fail to realize that its growth, development and final efficiency 
depend also in large measure upon the intellectual attainment of 
the people. 

The Master in conversation with Peter gave us to understand 
that the chief corner stone of the Church is faith. But faith must 
be backed up by two important elements. One is a knowledge of 
the problems incidental to everyday life. The other is a knowledge 
of the manner in which faith must be exercised in the solution of 
these problems. 

The prophet Hosea, while in deep meditation, lamenting over the 
failure of spiritual knowledge and devotion, exclaimed : " My peo- 
ple perish for the lack of knowledge.'' 

The Negro country church as an organization was practically 
unknown prior to 1861. The great bulk of Negro communicants 
prior to 1865 were members of the white churches. The oldest 
Negro church in Virginia is the First Baptist Church in the city 
of Williamsburg, the next is the Elam Baptist Church of Charles 
Citv County. In addition to these churches and following close 
in their wake are the First Baptist Church of Richmond, the Bute 
Street Baptist Church of Norfolk, Zion Baptist Church of Phoebus, 
and the First Baptist Church of Hampton. These churches are 



140 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

among the oldest in the entire South, some of them being organized 
as early as 1800, but they were not distinct Colored churches before 
Emancipation. The Methodist Church existed as an organization 
in the North prior to the Civil War. 

A strong faith in God by the newly emancipated slave and a de- 
termined purpose to save all generations by the spread of His King- 
dom through righteousness, inspired the hasty organization of the 
two leading denominations, namely, the Baptist and Methodist. 
At the close of the war the educated Negro church leaders were 
very few. In some communities white pastors and other interested 
Christian leaders gave them great aid and assisted in the organiza- 
tion of both Baptist and Methodist churches. Negro ministers were 
set apart by white theological councils. Schools and educational 
institutions such as the old Richmond Institute, Wayland Seminary, 
the theological department of Howard University, along with other 
schools in the South, were established especially for the training of 
Negro ministers. The Hampton Normal School, though not a 
theological institution, organized during the early eighties what 
was known as the Pastor's Class. The work done by these schools 
and others in the South accounts for the steady growth and increase 
in the Negro Church. 

In the early days of our freedom the church buildings and church 
life among the Negroes were very crude. They knew little or 
nothing about church government. They had a deep sense of honor 
and many of them knew by nature the difference between right and 
wrong. They enforced their opinions, not because of the knowl- 
edge they had, but because of their desire to cultivate as best they 
could that spark of celestial fire in the heart of every man. They 
believed in their sacred duty to the Church and in the pledge of 
members to support the Church. In some communities they had 
an affiliation which was based upon revealed church polity, for they 
could not read the guides as laid down by the intelligent and edu- 
cated church leaders. As an illustration of their lack of knowledge 
in the discipline of church members in my own county, there was 
an affiliation among the early churches to notify each other when- 
ever any member was disciplined. A young fellow by the name 
of Spencer Reed who belonged to one church and who had not 
paid his church dues was reported to old Uncle Daniel Seymour, 
who was a shepherd of another church. Spencer on one occasion 
at one of Uncle Daniel's meetings began to sing and shout. Old 
Uncle Daniel called out in a loud voice, " Who is dat singing dar? " 
Someone answered and said, " It is Spencer Reed." He then | 

yelled, " Spencer, Spencer, didn't I tole you, sir, you shouldn't sing 
no more till you paid your church dues?" Spencer replied, "I 
done paid fifteen cents on my church dues." " Well, go along den 
and sing fifteen cents' worth and stop." In this case the people 
did not fully perish for lack of knowledge, but they had more zeal 



■<i 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 141 

than knowledge. Were you in one of their church meetings to-day, 
you would find them considering the affairs with as much skill and 
dignity as the ordinary white church. 

It is almost impossible from my source of information to state 
just how many regularly organized Negro churches there were in 
the South at the close of the war. A comparison with the number 
in Virginia would perhaps be fair. We might safely estimate the 
number of regularly organized Negro churches in the entire South 
to be less than one hundred and save in a few cases these were 
located where the great bulk of their members were free Negroes. 
For instance, in Charles City County, Virginia, about thirty-five 
miles east of Richmond City, there was one Negro church whose 
membership was composed entirely of free Negroes. " Several of 
its pastors," says history, " were without education." The Census 
Bureau has furnished us with the most authentic information as to 
the number of Negro churches in the entire country in 1910 and 
yet the Bureau does not claim its figures to be accurate, complete 
and full. It reports 18,533 rnissionary Negro Baptist churches, 
797 Primitive Baptists and 251 United American Free Will Bap- 
tists, making a total of 19,581 Baptist churches. The growth of 
the Methodist churches in the entire country is shown by the Census 
Bureau in the following figures : Union American Episcopal 
Church yy, African Methodist Episcopal Church 6,647, African 
Union Methodist Protestant Church 69, African Methodist Episco- 
pal Zion 2,204, Reformed Zion Apostolic Church 45, Colored Meth- 
odist Episcopal 2,381, Reformed Methodist Union Episcopal Church 
58; total, 11,381; making a total for these two denominations of 
30,962. The reported number of Negro church organizations is 
31,393, leaving 431 for all the other denominations whose communi- 
cants are Negroes. It is not possible to locate accurately these 
bodies, but we can safely say that more than three-fifths of the 
entire church organizations among Negroes are in the rural sec- 
tions. Let us say, for the sake of argument based upon as much 
data as we can possibly secure, that at least 20,000 Negro churches 
are located in the rural South. The increase in the value of church 
property, as well as in church membership, has followed close in 
the wake of church organizations. In some instances church build- 
ings have received more attention than the actual objects for which 
they were dedicated. At least four-fifths of the rural Negro 
churches hold their services in regularly built church edifices. At 
the close of the war and for several years thereafter with few ex- 
ceptions the church edifices were owned or occupied by Negroes. 
There were two places in Gloucester County where colored people 
met for public worship before the war. A white man was re- 
quired by the law to meet with them. From the Zion Populous, 
a place in the center of the county, and the Sassafras stage in the 
upper part of the county, have come eighteen regularly organized 



142 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

colored churches. These churches have substantial buildings cost- 
ing from 1,500 to 5,000 dollars. 

These churches were made the battle ground for our temperance 
fight, the result of which is that Gloucester County has been dry 
for many years. The criminal element has been reduced and seldom 
we need our jail: our churches have become religious, social, and 
educational centers. Discussions of the every day problems are 
often had in our churches. 

Negro communicants wish above all things to have a nice looking 
church building, hence they organize in clubs and church societies 
for the purpose of collecting funds for the building. Many of 
them will not contribute for any other cause or purpose than for 
church buildings, hence our church property, according to the cen- 
sus, is valued at $56,636,159. We may again state that this is not 
an accurate valuation, but based only upon reports as received by 
the Census Bureau. We can therefore estimate the rural church 
property in the South alone as worth $30,000,000, all of which save 
a few thousand dollars has been accumulated by the Negro con- 
gregations since emancipation. 

At the beginning of our church life and for a long time there 
was only the church, without any auxiliaries within the main body. 
This of course prevented any rapid progress in the general organi- 
zation. Later Sunday Schools were organized within each church 
and many others in communities remote from the church as mis- 
sion schools or independent of any church organization. This 
auxiliary has been and will ever be the most potent factor in the 
development of our religious life. 

The efficiency of this branch of the Church also depends upon 
the intellectual as well as spiritual attainment of its leaders. To 
improve the general church there must be intelligent and conse- 
crated superintendents, teachers and general leaders. It is reported 
that 34,681 Sunday Schools exist. The great bulk of these, it is 
fair to estimate, are in the rural or country districts. These organi- 
zations have been greatly inspired and instructed by the National 
Sunday School organizations, such as the American Baptist Publi- 
cation Society, the National Baptist Publishing Board (colored), 
and the Sunday school organizations of each denomination among 
Negroes. The greatest agency employed in the development of this 
branch of the Church is the Sunday School Institute conducted 
after the plans furnished by the National Sunday School organiza- 
tions. The Bible as applied to every day life is the one central 
truth taught in these institutes. Another important step in the im- 
provement of the church life through the Sunday School is the 
department known as the Teacher's Training Department, but the 
great drawback has been, and is, a lack of trained leaders for each 
of these branches in the Sunday school. The most important^ thing 
now for the future improvement of the Church is the possession of 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 143 

means by which the Sunday School organizations may increase 
their forces of intelhgent and consecrated instructors and leaders. 

I would not have you believe that we, in any way, have over- 
looked since our general organization the importance of having an 
intelligent, trained ministry. This is the first step taken by many 
of the rural churches. 

First among the problems incidental to every day life and w'ith 
which every church has a vital relation is the intellectual attainment 
of the whole people. No people or nation can become intelligent 
and righteous without the substantial interest of the Christian 
Church in education. 

The Church in a large measure has encouraged and supported 
the college, the academy, the normal schools, in fact has been the 
parent of all the higher institutions of learning; but has failed to 
give enough attention to the public schools or what was known in 
the early history of our country as the old field schools. The rea- 
sons for this I shall not attempt to discuss, but I urge the churches 
to give their hearty endorsement and support to the efifort on the 
part of many educators to connect our public schools with life. 

The public school authorities will not have an efficient public 
school system in the South until the Church gets behind this general 
educational movement. When the Church assumes the obligation 
of creating sentiment for the education of all the people then the 
great masses will be educated and no race or nation will perish iorj 
the want of knowledge. 

No people whose morals are at a low ebb can ever hope to amount 
to much. The heathen, in many instances, have a low moral 
standard because they are not led by the Christian Church. The 
Master set the great moral standard for the world, and the Church 
is the one organization whose business it is to cooperate with the 
well regulated home in the development of that high moral standard 
as laid down by the Master. " Righteousness exalts a nation, but 
sin is a reproach to any people." 

The Church must therefore teach the people to be temperate and 
sober. To do this it should feel the responsibility of organizing a 
temperance society as one of its chief auxiliaries, for strong drink 
has been the downfall of more of our people than any other one 
of the evils that enter into our problems. 

The Master when on earth was very solicitous about the welfare 
of the bodies as well as the souls of men. He himself became an 
apprentice at the carpenter's trade, giving the stamp of His approval 
to the command. " in the sweat of the brow shalt thou eat bread." 
The well being of a people depends upon the skill and intelligence 
of the great masses. 

The Church therefore should teach the dignity of labor and the 
importance of every member of the community following some 
occupation. The minister, the Sunday school teacher, the public 



144 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

school teacher, the college professor and all leaders should be quali- 
fied to lead and teach by example the art of bread-winning as well 
as soul saving. 

The country church should ever keep before the people the 
thought of tilling the soil and extracting therefrom nature's wealth. 
The Church should see to it also that every individual has a general 
knowledge of home building, for the final efficiency of the Church 
depends largely upon efficiency in home life. 

Another problem that is most vital to the Church is the health 
of the people. Physical weakness in a large measure accounts for 
spiritual weakness. Ventilation, a pure water supply, destruction 
of the common house fly, as well as other pests, should constantly 
be discussed by the Church. In Virginia we have the Negro Organ- 
ization Society that acts as an important adjunct to the Church in 
the final effort to establish health creeds, better home life, better 
schools, better farms and a more efficient business life among the 
people. 

The country church can never escape its duty in developing the 
social side of the people, for the Master himself fixed the social 
creed which has stood, and will ever stand, the ravages of time. 
For a long time men everywhere have endeavored to divorce the 
Church from certain phases of community life. The dependent 
child, the helpless widow, and even the persons convicted of crime, 
have been neglected and even scorned by members of the church. 
The Church must reach out and save the defenseless and oppressed. 
In every State of the South there are many dependent children 
who become criminals. Individual church members and the col- 
lective church should throw around these children unceasing control 
and restraint, and should labor to prevent the incarceration of all 
children under i8 years of age. 

Our Sunday schools in Virginia are beginning to give some atten- 
tion to this side of our social problem. During the last eighteen 
months 165 little boys, most of whom were prisoners, have been 
taken from the jails and placed with good Christian families. 
Fifty-six dependent children have also been placed in good Chris- 
tian homes. Another phase of our social work which has the back- 
ing of many of our churches is the effort to build an industrial 
home-school for wayward colored girls in Virginia. 

With a clear vision of the vital relations of the Church to our 
every day problems, the young Christian leader can reestabHsh that 
strong faith in God, create that fervent feeling of devotion out of 
which will come a deep sense of Christian service. 

The young Christian leader need not give too much attention to 
the construction of church buildings, but more to a real Christian 

life. 

Let more of His life be seen in your every day life, be punctual 
and regular attendants upon church service, be mindful of the 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 145 

Christian, Social and Industrial rights of the community, then and 
not until then will the permanent and steady growth, with each of 
these necessary improvements our country church, be assured. 



SERVICE OF THE COUNTRY CHURCH IN HELPING 

THE NEGRO 

REV. G. LAKE IMES, 

Tuskegee, Ala., Dean of the Bible Training School, Tuskegee Institute. 

The Bible Training School of Tuskegee Institute has recently 
completed a survey of the churches of Macon County, Alabama. 
The results of this survey throw some valuable light on the prob- 
lems of the country churches. 

It was discovered that in this county there are 98 churches, scat- 
tered over a district of 615 square miles. These churches minister 
to a population of 22,000 Negroes. Of this number 8,987 are 
members of the churches. These churches represent an invest- 
ment in lands and buildings of $55,000 and for their operation and 
management they receive annually contributions amounting to 
$29,000. These 9,000 workers and these 100 plants are directed 
by 74 pastors, with the assistance of 250 local ministers and 905 
officers. 

These facts gathered from a strictly rural district and taken at 
a time when outside forces have had little to do with the develop- 
ment of religion among our people, may be considered as fairly 
typical of general conditions in the country church among Negroes. 
Their significance will be brought out as we proceed. 

In a conference of this kind immediate interest lies in the pos- 
sibility of the use of these forces in the development of country 
life. We are asked to consider what can be done with these re- 
sources of men and money to secure their greatest efficiency in 
solving the problems of life in the country. 

I was reading sometime ago an article in a Y. M. C. A. magazine 
in which the editor said, " We want men of vision : workers we 
have a plenty, willing, enthusiastic, unselfish workers, but men who 
can see ahead and plan and direct are the scarcest material we have." 
Life in the country has suffered for nothing as for this vision 
of its possibilities. Visions indeed it has had, but they have been 
too often of things at a distance and remote from its own atmos- 
phere and conditions. 

Our country boy dreams of success, not on a farm, but in a city ; 

not as a farmer, but as a doctor, merchant, tradesman, or porter; 

and every sacrifice is made by those who love him, to realize the 

vision that takes him away from home and out of the country. 

The vision of prosperity at home is of the same kind. It is a 



146 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

vision of increased credit ; of larger advances at the store ; of bigger 
loans ; all of which finally means more and better things for the 
man at the bank, and less for those at home. And even in the 
matter of rest and recreation, the same attitude obtains. Bending 
over the plow, prodding the patient soil, his vision of pleasure and 
rest and refreshment is in the hot and dusty town, with its gaudy, 
garish appeals that consume everything and give nothing in return. 

What the country wants is men and women who are possessed 
of a vision of the possibilities (that can be realized in the very 
heart) of the country itself. The best friend the country boy can 
have is one who can open to his eyes a vision of success on the 
farm, among the pigs and chickens and cows and corn and cotton 
and potatoes ; who can show him that his hopes of prosperity and 
usefulness and achievements can be realized on the soil where he 
was born. 

While the farmer works in the field, he wants the help of some- 
one who can keep before his eyes the vision of his own growing 
crops ; of overloaded barns, of lowing cattle, of rich and fruitful 
gardens : the vision of his own bank account made large as the 
fruit of his own diligent toil. He wants the vision of comforts 
in his own home : he wants the vision of an easy chair at the close 
of the day's honest toil ; of happy children, honorable, upright, 
sons and daughters : a happy, cheerful wife, whose loyalty is in- 
creased by the evident returns for their labor and love. 

Now the country church and the country preacher have the privi- 
lege of rendering this immediate service to those about them. If 
the country church does nothing else than create and keep this •• 

vision of a new Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven ;; 

into the country districts of the South, it were well worth every | 

cent, and all the interest invested in it. But what do we find? In \ 

a great many cases the Church itself presents a vision of all that is 
miserable, backward, ignorant and uninviting. The preacher openly 
declares that he has no faith in the country by going off to his 
town home on the first train after the Sunday service. The only < 

vision of rest and comfort the Church brings is in Heaven, and ) 

that Heaven, too, is in another world, among a different people, and ^ 

is to be reached only by dying. Granting the full reality of this | 

Heavenly vision ; the Church can keep in mind } 

" That Men of Grace have found v 

Glory begun below, 
Celestial fruits on earthly ground." 

The Master of the Church taught his disciples to pray for a 
kingdom on earth like that in Heaven. If the Church can make 
every son of the soil see the beginning of his Heaven here below, 
it will give such a vitality and strength to religion as we never 
thought it had. Now let me remind you that to perform this task 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 147 

the Church does not need one cent more, nor a single change in 
its organization. Just as it stands the Church is equipped with 
men and with pulpits to sound this gospel in every part of the land. 
The man who can bring to the people such a vision of a new life 
in the country will be truly a prophet sent from God. 

Again, the country church wants a programme of service. By 
this I mean a definite scheme of activity that looks forward to the 
development of the life of the community in which the church is 
located. In this direction the country church has three distinct 
advantages. In the first place it is the natural center of community 
life. Entertainments are held at the church, picnics and other 
social gatherings. It is the public meeting place for business, and 
politics too. At some stages of its career it does double duty as 
church and schoolhouse. In these and similar ways it touches 
practically every interest of the community life. 

A second advantage that is peculiarly true of the Church among 
Negroes is that it likewise reaches all classes of society. The old 
gather for religious and other serious purposes. The children 
gather largely for social purposes. But whatever their purpose, 
these gatherings never fail to bring together not only the useful and 
aspiring elements of the community, but in a notable degree the 
idle and vicious elements as well. The camp meeting and revival 
have their following of gamblers, bootleggers and loafers as well 
as of preachers, singers, exhorters and moaners. Every grade and 
stratum of society for one reason or another follows in the wake 
of the church. 

The third and perhaps greatest advantage of the Church is the 
fact that leadership is conceded to the preacher without dispute. 
His influence, and with it the patronage of the Church is accepted 
and even coveted in every direction that he may be minded to 
bestow it. 

These facts place before the country church practically unlimited 
possibilities in the direction of definite, practical service in the 
more homely interests of the people. But the plain fact is that 
instead of being organized to help the people in these definite and 
practical ways, the present organization of the church is chiefly for 
exploitation. As things are at present, the country church is farm- 
ing the country people in the same way that the present system of 
agriculture farms the land. In plain words, the average country 
church among the Negroes is getting out of the people all it possibly 
can, with little or no thought as to what the people get in return. 
Let me give some figures : 

In Macon County there are 98 churches. These churches re- 
ceive from the people each year about $29,000. Of this amount 
pastors and preachers receive $23,000. About $3500 are sent away 
to support outside organizations. The balance, less than $2500, 
goes for repairs, debts, upkeep, and miscellaneous expense. Now 



148 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

the pastors of these churches come to their communities on Satur- 
day and leave on Monday. No time is spent in pastoral visitation. 
No attention is given to the school. No service is rendered in the 
v^eekday interests of the people, and this is the result: that while 
the people of this community contribute nearly four times as much 
to religion as they do to education, they receive in the time of the 
pastor, and the upkeep of the church, only one-sixth as much in 
return as they receive from the schools. In short, the Church and 
the preacher are in grave danger of becoming mere parasites in ,^ 

the life of our people. What are the remedies? 

In the first place, a decent return for the money invested calls 
for more of the pastor's time. The country, of all places, needs a 
man who can and will remain in the midst of his people, sharing 
their life, interested in their pursuits and giving time, thought and 
energy to helping, in every possible way, to make country life more 
attractive, wholesome and profitable to those who dwell there. In 
the great majority of cases in this county, the pastors visit their 
communities only one Sunday in each month. At the most liberal 
estimate, they do not spend more than one day in 15, or 25 out of 
the 365 among their people. On the face of it, it is plain that less 
than one month in the year, given one or two days at a time, will 
not be productive of any substantial results in the direction of 
helping these people. 

At a time when boards of education are striving in every way 
to lengthen the school term, the responsible leaders in church life 
should be exerting every efifort to increase the amount of time that 
pastors spend among their people. 

Again, this absence of the pastors leads to another result. The 
churches themselves stand idle the greater part of the year. In 
this same survey it was discovered that at the very best, the church 
buildings through the county are not in use more than four days 
in the month. In the majority of cases they are used only two 
days in the month. This means that an investment of $750 or 
$1000 in land and buildings is allowed to stand idle 95% of the time. 
Valuable as religion is, it is too valuable not to be used more than 

it is. 

In a district where there is no other common meeting place, no 
real social center, the church might well be used more frequently 
than it is in the interest of wholesome community development. 

The same idleness touches the official body of the church. In 
Macon County, Ala., the 74 pastors are helped by 249 local licensed 
preachers and 905 officers. But when the pastor is absent the 
licensed preachers have no responsibility for church services and 
take the pulpit only to serve his convenience and needs. The offi- 
cers vie with each other for precedence and power. Were these 
men active all the while, perhaps the community could afford to 
spare their pastor from their midst. 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 149 

There is yet one more condition in the country church that could 
be immediately improved. I have called attention to the fact that 
practically 88% of the money contributed for religion in the coun- 
try is used in a personal way, for salaries, traveling expenses, and 
such things. Now the gravity of this is not in the amount of 
money that these persons received, for the average salary in our 
county is only about $250. Even if the pastor has two churches, 
his income cannot be very large — but the gravity lies in this : that 
the church does not interest itself in the support of other movements 
in the community that deserve similar contributions from the pub- 
lic purse. Money will be raised for the church, for salaries, for 
buildings, but not one cent for the public welfare. Every effort is 
made to get money from the people ; but almost nothing is done to 
see that the people have some tangible return for what they con- 
tribute. After giving money for years for the support of the 
church, the school facilities will be just as poor; the homes just as 
miserable and unattractive; and the jail and chain gang just as 
full as they ever were. It is in this direction that the Church can 
afford to ask for larger contributions from the people. The neg- 
lect of these " productive " activities, as they may be called, is work- 
ing to keep the church itself poor, miserable and weak. 

In all of this, I have tried to indicate that the present organization 
of the church, which is now doing nothing more than exploiting the 
people, should be developed to the point where it can make a clear 
cut, definite contribution to the life of the people. By the side of 
the Ladies' Aid Society, let there grow up a " School Aid Society." 
Along with the gifts for the poor saints, let there be gifts whose 
aim is to reach and save the poor sinners. For every dollar that is 
spent in the organisation of the church, let another dollar be spent 
for its work among the people. It is the neglect of this kind of 
activity which has given rise to so many other organizations, ex- 
ternal to the Church, that are now doing what the Church ought to 
have done long ago. 

Up to this point, I have tried to show that the church can serve 
the man in the country by keeping a vision before his eyes, and 
helping him realize that vision. I want to say further that this is 
a task, and a man's task, at that. We are already familiar with 
the development of modern industry that is calling for skilled labor 
in even the humblest tasks; skilled labor in section gangs on the 
railroads, skilled labor in street paving, skilled labor in tunneling. 
Industry in all its forms is operating with skilled labor with greatly 
increased production and corresponding increase in profits. In the 
same way skilled labor has come into the school room. The school 
superintendent is no longer satisfied with the teacher who is simply 
a graduate. To be really acceptable he must have had special train- 
ing in some particular line of educational work. And we have 
come to the point where the farm is voicing the same demand. The 



ISO THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

hundreds of demonstrators in all parts of our Southland are simply 
the beginning of an attempt to make the farmer a skilled laborer. 
In the same way, the programme which I have outlined up to this 
point demands the highest kind of skilled labor. To operate the 
Church with anything less is to reap the same failure that has 
come to the farmer. In this matter I refer not only to the pulpit 
but to the pews as well. It has been for a long time conceded that 
the progress and activities of the Church demand a trained minister. 
The idea has been very general that with a trained pastor, the 
problems of the Church would be at an end, but it would be just as 
futile to attempt to operate the church with untrained workers as 
it would be to operate a cotton mill with all green hands. Such a 
church would no more be a success than an army with a horde of 
raw recruits. But for a long time yet the preacher will receive 
most attention. 

The preacher at best is expected to know a great many things, 
but the country preacher ought to know something about every- 
thing. For a good many reasons, he is apt to find himself the only 
man in the community whose assistance will be welcomed in all 
phases of life. To make the most of his opportunities his training 
will be as diversified as it is possible to make it. In this situation 
the question is not, " what ought the minister do? " but " what can 
he do ? " and he will find his opportunities as his talents are varied. 
The translation of a Hebrew word or the theology of Shakespeare 
solve no problems in the country. The more the preacher knows 
about raising chickens and storing sweet potatoes, the stronger will 
be his appeal to the men and women around him. But most of all 
will he have a heart trained to be interested in the happiness and 
welfare of his fellows. His greatest joy will be to touch the com- 
mon life and to move among his neighbors as their friend and 
helper. 

Unfortunately the country church among Negroes, without refer- 
ence to the situation among other people, has few such men. The 
reasons for their lack of training in the schools are known to us 
all and are not to be charged to their account, but their failing in 
the direction of unselfish interest in the progress of their people 
is sad almost to discouragement. In the county already referred 
to only two pastors among the hundred churches lived among their 
people. The others were distant from 5 to 30 miles. The station 
agent in a small town in the State of Alabama reports that at the 
end of the week he regularly sees more than 25 Negro ministers 
leaving that town for churches in the country, and as regularly re- 
turning on Monday. Of course there are reasons for this choice 
of life at a distance, but however good the reasons, it simply means 
that the interest of these pastors in their people is secondary to 
their interest in other things. The words of the Master come forci- 
bly: " The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling: the good shep- 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 151 

herd giveth his hfe for the sheep." Much as these districts need 
the preaching of the Gospel, they need also the help, presence, 
sympathy and example of the preacher in their midst. No amount 
of excuses, however just and plausible, can supply this lack. Only 
the preacher who lives in the country can be the real country 
preacher. 

I have gone thus far with only the slightest reference to preach- 
ing, and there are some, I am sure, who have already begun to 
think that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a secondary part in this 
programme of the Church for rural improvement. Let us make 
no such mistake, but rather let us change our ideas of the nature 
and purpose of the Gospel. It was the old apostle Paul who de- 
scribed this Gospel as " the power of God unto salvation," and this 
will be its function in the programme that I have just set before 
you. In all that may be undertaken it will be the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ that will be the force, the power, the dynamic that will 
realize the achievements that have been outlined. It will take the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ to open the eyes of men to this new vision 
of the possibilities of life in the country : it will take the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ to quicken their faith in the practical means adopted 
for its realization : it will take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to reconcile 
them to the toil, to the struggle, to the labor, to the sacrifice that 
must be made for its final achievement. Sabbath after Sabbath the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ will point the way upward, will strengthen 
the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees, will say to them that 
are of fearful heart, " Be strong, fear not." 

But we are not accustomed to hearing the Gospel in this light. 
We have come to think of it as an end in itself ; to think of preach- 
ing as the only purpose of the ministry. But to have preaching, 
without undertaking some task, is to have an engine with no ma- 
chinery to operate, a dynamo without cars to run, a mill without 
corn to grind. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a power, and as such 
is designed for the accomplishment of deeds. It is a force to send 
men on in the accomplishment of the world's work. It is the great 
dynamic of that civilization which is called Christian, and if one 
but studies history he will not fail to discover that behind the mar- 
velous achievements of the present age is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 
enlarging the vision of men, quickening their faith in the work of 
their hands, and urging them on to larger and noble achievements. 
A Gospel that does not do this is no Gospel at all, it is but " as 
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." 

In closing I want to address a word to these far-sighted friends 
who are responsible for this Conference. You have reached the 
foundation. You have struck rock bottom. In your aspirations for 
the progress of the Negro there is a significance in the Church 
that is not to be overlooked. In the first place it is the oldest and 
most extensive organization at work for the uplift of the Negro. 



152 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

For over a hundred years the Negro church has been at work for 
the salvation of its people, and has been the conservator of the 
best things among us. These years have seen its distribution into 
every section of our land where the foot of the Negro has trod. 
In new sections it is the first expression of community life. In 
old sections it is the most flourishing. There are places without 
number where the Negro has no schools. Business is just begin- 
ning to make its appearance everywhere among us, but I have 
never yet seen any community of Negroes that does not have a 
church, even if the meeting place is a storeroom or a private home. 
This means that the humblest and most remote member of the race 
can be reached and touched with vitalizing influences through the 
medium of the Church. | 

Again, it is a striking fact that the Church has more capital in- 
vested in its business than any other social agency among us. In 
Macon County alone, the capital invested in buildings and lands for 
church purposes is $55,000; this without any stimulus from the out- 
side to enhance its growth. In the same county the public schools 
represent a capital investment of only $40,000; a result produced 
by the combined efforts of the State, of Tuskegee Institute, of the 
Jeanes Fund and private benevolence. The Church represents an 
already established organization, ready at once to be launched into 
new channels of progressive development. 

Finally it has the largest following of men and women, already 
pledged to its support and development. 

In this same county 9,000 out of the total population of 22,000 
are members of the Church. This gives a working force of one 
man in the Church to work upon and influence two persons outside 
of the Church. Such possibilities of intensive cultivation in human 
society rival those of the farmer in the intensive cultivation of the 
soil. 

But let us pass from mere figures to the men and women them- 
selves. Nowhere, perhaps, will you find a heartier response to 
messages and movements for progress and development than in 
these country districts themselves. The very exodus to the city, 
of which we complain so much, is itself the expression of the desire 
of the men in the country for a larger and better life. However 
mistaken his judgment as to the possibilities that await him, the 
fact remains that he is well aware of his present unhappy lot, and 
is willing to risk a good deal for its improvement. Just what he 
is willing to do in cooperation with the Church may be seen in a 
return to figures. 

In the county so frequently referred to the Negroes alone con- 
tribute about $7,000 for their schools, to which the State adds 
$9,000: but these same people are contributing annually more than 
$29,000 for the support of their churches. This sum judiciously 
supplemented by contributions from the outside would work won- 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 153 

ders if more wisely directed toward the general uplift. It is a 
good thing that at last you have come to touch and rejuvenate the 
Church among us. We have stood by and seen the growth and 
development of our schools, and rejoice in the progress we have 
made in knowledge and wisdom. We have witnessed with satis- 
faction the leaps and bounds of economic achievement. While 
watching these we have wondered why such discriminating sym- 
pathy should pass over (in its beneficent purposes) an institution 
that touches every member of the race ; that enrolls one-third of the 
race among its workers; that stands already organized with the 
largest capital of all our social agencies. But it appears that some- 
one has caught the vision. A prophet has arrived and we look 
forward to the largest, most rapid and most substantial progress 
that the race has yet made. 

Catching the inspiration of this Conference, I see a multitude 
of these young people going forth to larger and better service in 
the Church of Jesus Christ. " And the wilderness and the solitary 
place shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blos- 
som as the rose." 



WORK OF A NEIGHBORHOOD UNION 

MRS. JOHN HOPE, 

Atlanta, Ga., Moorehouse College. 

I CONSIDER it a rare opportunity to talk to so many hundreds of 
students, because you represent the best preparation for unselfish 
service, and it is of service that I shall talk to you young people. 

A great deal has been said about the needs of the country. I 
shall talk of the needs of the city and what we are doing in Atlanta. 

Now if you would prepare for unselfish service the very first 
requisite is to get the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart, for to be able 
to reach the less fortunate people, you must love them, for there 
is no bond between you and them, if there is no love, for Christ 
is love, and through Him alone can there exist the fellowship with 
God and the brotherhood of man. 

Our Neighborhood Union, an organization of colored women 
in Atlanta, considers that the conservation of the child is a prior 
factor in the problem of social improvement, and we believe that 
the best way to save the child is through the home. The workers 
of a Union look to their immediate community and by their exam- 
ple of local assistance, stimulate other communities to organize for 
the improvement of their Neighborhood. 

What I shall say pertains almost exclusively to the slum element 
of the neighborhood, yet if a stranger should ride through the 
neighborhood and see the conditions of the streets, the lack of 



154 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

water, drainage, sewerage, lighting and housing in many of the 
streets, he might think that it is all slum. Even where the best 
homes are situated, where the house-holders and property owners 
and wholesome conditions are to be found, the streets are so un- 
sightly that the casual observer would get a very poor impression 
of a very fine group of colored people. To such an extent has 
the city neglected to supply good streets, ample lights and proper 
sewerage, although repeated requests and petitions have gone up 
to the city authorities, that it might be well to soften much of the 
criticism of Negro localities and inquire to what extent the city 
itself has fulfilled its duty to its Negro citizens. But in spite of 
unfavorable appearances good people live there and through their 
own right living are presenting a standard of physical and moral 
cleanliness. 

Not only is the city remiss, but the Negro suffers at the hands 
of real estate men. They rent to Negroes a class of houses that is 
known as " Nigger houses." I want you to think of these shacks 
and the wretched poor people in them, for it is this combination 
of bad housing and poverty that makes the problem very difficult. 

Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and to have clean, sweet, pure 
homes, we must be mentally, morally and physically clean. But 
how can this be, when I tell you that there is a place here where 
thirty-eight families must draw water from one faucet? These 
people must depend on washing and ironing for a livelihood. Is 
it possible for the person or clothes to be clean? And the well 
water is too precious in these quarters to be wasted in cleaning 
house. Yet in the face of these condititons we must rear indus- 
trious, pure girls and boys. 

One of our workers called upon me to go with her to a house 
in her district. A girl of fifteen had grown tired of the tumbled- 
down shanty with its bare board walls with the loose " cracks lined 
with the countless generations of germs of every description," for 
the walls had never been even whitewashed. She had lived there 
with two sisters who worked out all day, and now she longed for a 
little color and brightness — she wanted to go to the show,^ she 
longed for friends, for happiness. She was tired of washing, iron- 
ing and carrying clothes, being a hopeless drudge, getting no joy , 
out of life. The girl ran away. We succeeded in bringing her | 
back home ; but she still has a restlessness. What I have just told 
you was the girl's own reason for leaving. She told it to us her- 
self. The awful tragedy of the poor is drudgery, monotony, gloom 
and hopelessness. 

The fifteen-year-old girl is a sad problem in such surroundings, 
especially when villainous men are seeking to entice and ruin her. 
We rescued a girl that had been drugged and kept all night in a 
house occupied only by a man. Yet we found it practically im- 
possible to punish these men. I tell you we women and men must 

t 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 155 

see to it that our girls get a fairer showing. Whether they are good 
girls or bad girls they are ours, and we can improve them and 
protect them. So, we go from house to house. The people work 
— work all day and half the night — but what then? There is 
nothing uplifting for them as they see it ; they have not even homes, 
although they try in vain to make them. In one district where the 
houses were so steeped in wretchedness that it seemed impossible 
for good influences to afifect them a director or worker started a 
Sunday school and she went each Sunday to gather up the little 
ones. One day she stopped at the door from which came the voices 
of men. She saw they were gambling and kindly admonished them 
to stop. They threatened violence to her if she ever came back. 
However she did go back and talk with them and they promised 
to do better. Some good was done for they did not gamble in 
that house any more. 

Now these gambhng dens, blind tigers and places of immorality 
can be found in almost any community of respectable people. They 
are unwelcome neighbors it is true, but they are everywhere with 
their demoralizing influences. Think of your child coming in con- 
tact with these people and their children who are shut in among 
surroundings which sere the mind by suggestions of evil, where 
hideous ugliness drives the soul away from ideas of truth and 
beauty and purity. What hope would there be for your child? 

Someone has said — " The most pitiful victim of modern life is 
not the slum child who dies, but the slum child who lives. Every 
time a baby dies the nation loses a prospective citizen, but in every 
slum child who lives the nation has a probable consumptive and a 
possible criminal." 

In one family, depraved it seems beyond redemption, there is 
one little boy we have been following up for several years, coach- 
ing and loving him into doing right and trying to inspire him into 
wanting to be somebody. Repeatedly have we talked with the in- 
mates of this house ; we have not asked them to move out of^ the 
neighborhood because we want to hold on to the boy. The sister 
of this bov was left in charge of her four brothers at the death of 
her mother. This woman, a hard-working woman, had to leave 
these boys to play in the street, as thousands of our children are 
left. I have watched her for years each day go to and from work. 
These boys had no one to look after them ; they went to school only 
a half day, because in our city the Negro schools are so crowded 
that they cannot accommodate all of the children except by taking 
them in half-day shifts. So these boys running wild every day 
while their sister was at work, turned out to be crooks and crim- 
inals. But their big sister, a good woman, tried to save her young- 
est brother. She paid him out of trouble, spent all of her earn- 
ings, and ruined her health besides. From a home like this we are 
trying to rear this little boy. Many examples I coukl tell where 



156 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

these poor people could be saved and made into good citizens if 
only they are given a chance. 

I know no place that offers a greater opportunity for propa- 
gating criminals than our city. These people pay vastly more for 
the rent of their shanties than do the best class for better homes. 
The greed of the landlords and their desire for larger profits on their 
investment make them slow to reform. The responsibility of dis- 
ease and crime justly belongs to the landlords. They are respon- 
sible for the conditions of the house they rent and when they in- 
sist on family after family moving into filthy, broken-down, poorly 
ventilated houses, they are spreading diseases to hundreds of fam- 
ilies. It is no wonder that the mortality is high, that hundreds of 
tuberculosis patients die every year. These men receive blood 
money and care nothing for the people or community. We are 
working hard on this problem and shall succeed. Many of our 
best white people are assisting us. 

The National Housing Association says : " Any condition of 
housing which is unsafe or unsanitary, or in any way unfit for liv- 
ing or home making is bad housing." 

" Any condition of housing that in itself tends to impair the 
physical or moral health of a tenant is bad housing." 

" Any condition of housing which is damaging to the community 
is bad housing." 

The Negro has been censured for years as a breeder of all that 
is vile, a menace to any community, but the truth is we are neg- 
lected. I tell you, my friends, the slum is not all vice and crime. 
Much of the slum is just misfortune, poverty and disease which 
might easily be our lot some day. Because we live in these places, 
we do not have to die in them, for we can transform them. 

The programme of the Neighborhood Union seems to be very 
heavy, but when you consider that this is neighborhood develop- 
ment, it means that if a neighborhood is to be made what it should 
be, every condition that is not satisfactory should be investigated, 
and the children should be carefully protected and directed. To 
do this we hope to establish Neighborhood Centers in each neigh- 
borhood. These centers would not be complete without a kinder- 
garten and day nursery. Is the day nursery a crying need for the 
Negro ? 

Let me tell you one little story out of hundreds that could be 
told. 

A widow with three children, the eldest a girl of eight years, 
was obliged to leave her children each day alone. This mother 
nursed a sick child in the rich section of the city. Some times she 
could not return to her little ones until nine o'clock at night. The 
neighbors had been keeping an eye on the little folks. One cold 4 

night the children disappeared. The neighbors started a search 5 

and when the mother came home she too joined the party. They 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 157 

searched everywhere but to no avail. When the Httle group re- 
turned to the house not knowing what to do next, one woman 
thought to look under the couch in the corner, and there to her 
surprise were the three ragged, hungry children piled up on each 
other fast asleep. Fear of the darkness, cold and hunger made 
these little ones find a warm, safe retreat. Do we need day nurser- 
ies? 

These neighborhood centers will supply a great need when they 
are placed in the midst of the very poor. They will serve as a 
recreation center and an effort will be made to give some color to 
the life of the neglected boys and girls, women and men of the com- 
munity. 

The children from the kindergarten age up, are to be taught 
home making. The domestic science is to begin with the child of 
the second grade and continue through the eighth grade. Give the 
child as broad an education as he is capable of taking on, but give 
him the practical side early in life that it may become a part of 
him. Then should he stop his education early as most of them 
do, he will be prepared to become a useful citizen. 

I have dwelt much on bad housing and extreme poverty and tried 
to show the relation of this condition to crime. I have tried to 
emphasize that there may after all be some sort of relation between 
physical uncleanliness and moral uncleanliness. 

It is our aim to improve the homes and make the people hopeful, 
and after all that is the problem — to encourage our people and 
bring sunshine into their lives. Our obligation is to those in need. 
We must love our neighbor as ourselves and make a man, a good 
citizen of him. 



COOPERATION BETWEEN THE RACES 

Signs of Growing Cooperation 
Cooperation of Southern White People 
Pastors in Cooperation 
Editorial Assistance 



i 









SIGNS OF GROWING COOPERATION 

By MAJOR ROBERT R. MOTON, 

Hampton, Va., Commandant, Hampton Institute. 

In a meeting held recently in Virginia an old colored preacher 
in opening the service prayed thus : — " O God of all races, will 
you please, Sir, come in and take charge of de min's of all dese 
yere white people and fix dem so dat dey'll know an' understan' 
dat all of we color'd folks is not lazy, dirty, dishones' an' no 'count, 
an' help dem. Lord, to see dat most of us is prayin', workin' and 
strivin' to get some land, some houses and some ed'cation for our- 
selves an' our chilun, an' get true 'ligion, an' dat most every Negro 
in Northampton County is doin' his lebel bes' to make frien's and 
get along wid de white folks. Help dese yere white folks, O Lord, 
to understan' dis thing. Lord, while You is takin' charge of de 
min's of dese white people don't pass by de color'd folks for dey is 
not perfec' — dey needs You as de white folks do. Open de Ne- 
gro's blin' eyes dat he may see dat all of de white folks are not 
mean an' dishonest an' prejudice' against de color'd folks ; dat 
dere is hones', hard-workin', jus' and God-fearin' white folks in dis 
yere community who are tryin' the bes' dey know how, wid de 
cir'umstances against dem, to be fair in dere dealin's wid de color'd 
folks, and help dem to be 'spectable men an' women. Help us, 
Lord, black and white to understan' each other more eve'y day." 

The prayer of this old colored man expresses in a crude, but 
effective fashion the feeling and desires of the best Negroes and 
the best white people of the South. The sentiment of this prayer 
is becoming more and more universal, and it is actuating as never 
before the best thought and the highest aspirations of our South- 
em people. This, then, is the first fundamental sign of growing 
cooperation in our South. One who is reasonably familiar with 
Southern conditions cannot but see on every hand unmistakable 
evidences that the two races are growing more and more to under- 
stand and sympathize with each other in the common life which they 
now lead and must of necessity continue to lead. 

It is comparatively easy for a person to become discouraged re- 
garding the situation, especially if he is governed by the reports 
which he sees in the average daily paper. There seems to be a 
popular desire, on the part of press dispatches, to emphasize the 
unsavory side of Negro life. 

How often one sees in a paper — front page, first column, in 
glaring headlines a report of some crime alleged to have been 

i6i 



l62 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

committed by a black man ; whereas, in the very same paper on the 
last page and often in a most insignificant place on that page with 
very modest headlines, one finds a report of a white man charged 
with the same sort of crime! If there is a misunderstanding be- 
tween black and white people in any community, often in cases 
where there are less than a half dozen in the disturbance, the papers 
will report a race riot and give the impression that practically all 
the Negroes and white people in the community are up in arms 
against each other. 

This sort of propaganda which has been indulged in for several 
decades and with increasing exaggeration cannot but prejudice many 
people of both races against the Negro and cause the casual observer 
to wonder after all if it is possible for the black and white races, 
whom God in His infinite wisdom and goodness has seen fit in His 
own way to place side by side in large numbers on Southern soil, 
to live helpfully and harmoniously together. But there is no real 
reason for discouragement because this is more or less superficial 
and far from the actual facts of the situation, for with a sober 
second thought there comes to mind the rank and file of the Negro 
race — the law-abiding citizens who keep out of court, out of the 
papers, and the earnest, thoughtful growing numbers who are work- 
ing side by side with the best white people for the salvation of the 
race problem. 

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS 

Immediately after the War there was naturally a certain sort of 
paternal relation that existed between the white man and the Negro, 
but this was rather of a patronizing sort. This relationship exists 
even now to some extent, but such a relationship cannot long con- 
tinue. There must come a difference and a more lasting, and in 
the long-run, a more wholesome relationship. The younger genera- 
tions of the white and black races have now come to the stage of 
action. Their dealings are less cordial and less patronizing, but are 
more cold and business-like. The Negro stands on his manhood. 
Few favors are asked except such as may be reduced to a basis of 
dollars and cents. 

There was developed during the days of slavery a spirit of sus- 
picion on the part of the Negro against white people which the 
Reconstruction Period did not by any manner of means lessen and 
which has hampered the Negro, perhaps, more than it has the white 
man. This the Negro is rapidly out-living and that, too, is en- 
couraging. Notwithstanding all that has been said against the Negro 
from the press and platform, the real situation was never more hope- 
ful and encouraging than it is at present. Even the casual observer 
must see that there is growing a spirit of real cooperation and sym- 
pathy between the races, and that never before has there been a 
more earnest and sincere effort on the part of both races for mutual 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 163 

help and cooperation. There is a growing and genuinely honest dis- 
position on the part of the Negro everywhere to seek the advice as 
well as the assistance and cooperation of white people in every move- 
ment for the common good of the Negroes in almost every com- 
munity. There is an increasingly strong feeling on the part of 
Negro laborers and mechanics for unity and cooperation with sim- 
ilar groups of white artisans, and the white Unions are seeing 
more and more the necessity for a closer union of the various 
labor operations, and this feeling will continue to grow as men be- 
come better trained, better educated and better Christians. 

EDUCATIONAL COOPERATION 

In educational matters there is a growing sympathy and spirit 
of cooperation between whites and blacks as never before. The 
Negro is calling on school officials for a fair and equitable distribu- 
tion of school funds. They are asking for better schools, longer 
terms, better pay for teachers, and better equipment : in many cases 
the Negroes, out of their own earnings, are buying land for the 
school and often putting up the school houses, sometimes supple- 
menting the pay of the teacher, this generally being done with the 
advice and approval of the local school officials, who are respond- 
ing with a more liberal appropriation for school purposes such as 
was never before witnessed. 

Hampton Institute through its Principal, Dr. Frissell and its 
Trustees, notably the late Robert C. Ogden and through the insti- 
tutions that have grown out of Hampton, has done more than per- 
haps any other single institution in making possible the sort of co- 
operation that counts for most in the development of the two races 
here in the South. Hampton Institute more than any other insti- 
tution, through its Trustees, Principal and graduates, has estab- 
lished a platform upon which Northern men, Southern men, black 
men and white men can work together for the good of humanity 
and the glory of God. More phases of life, more creeds and colors 
are constantly meeting at Hampton for the discussion of vital ques- 
tions and inspiration for greater work than in any other place, 
perhaps, in America. 

Dr. Booker T. Washington has done more than any single man 
to bring the colored people to realize the wisdom and absolute neces- 
sity of calling on the white people for advice and aid, and I need 
not say that the response in most cases has been most helpful and 
gratifying, and this attitude on the part of colored people has en- 
couraged the white people to take more interest in what is going 
on among colored people in almost every line of endeavor. 

We all know of the work of the Jeanes Board through which Dr. 
James H. Dillard has accomplished such splendid service for God 
and humanity, and all know also of the State Superintendents of 
the rural schools of whom Mr. Jackson Davis was the pioneer. 



l64 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

These two agencies are linking not only the common rural schools 
in the communities in which they work but are doing what is more 
important — they are linking the two races together on the ground 
of common brotherhood, common needs and common sympathy, in 
the cities as well as in the country. Here is a great forward move- 
ment toward the cooperation of the races. In Savannah, for ex- 
ample, organizations like the National Negro Business League are 
cooperating with the white people for a greater and better city. 
The same is true in Nashville as well as here in Atlanta and in 
other Southern cities. 

DR. Washington's trips in the south 

Dr. Washington, usually under the auspices of the National 
Negro Business League with other prominent colored men, has gone 
on what he calls " Educational Tours " through almost all of the 
Southern States where thousands of people, white and black, have 
gathered. These thousands have gotten from the distinguished 
Negro leader, frank, yet sane, advice as to the best methods of 
real cooperation and a more helpful relationship. These addresses 
have had as cordial a response from white as from black people. 
It would be difificult to estimate the value of such trips in cement- 
ing more cordial sympathetic feeling between the two races in these 
States. 

university race commission 

The unstinted thanks of the Negro of the South are due Dr. 
James H. Dillard who brought into being, at the right time, the 
University Commission on Race Questions, a Commission composed 
of representatives of all the Southern State universities — men who 
without sentiment, are getting at the real facts regarding the Negro, 
with a view to helping not merely the Negro but the South and 
Nation as well. The Negro is perfectly willing to be judged on 
his merits by unbiased men, especially when they have before them 
the actual facts. 

sociological congress at MEMPHIS 

Some of us attended last week in Memphis what was in some 
ways the most remarkable gathering I have ever witnessed. This 
was the third annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Congress. 
There came together a large body of Southern men representing all 
phases of Southern life, and an equally as interesting and repre- 
sentative body of Negroes. These men expressed frankly, dis- 
passionately and kindly their views on the race situation, offering 
sane, helpful suggestions as to adequate remedies. Is it not a hope- 
ful sign when black men and white men can thus counsel together 
on common problems? 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 165 



COOPERATION OF WOMEN 

Our N€gro women have shown consummate wisdom and tact in 
securing the cooperation and help of the leading white women in 
their civic movements. The Women's Civic League of Baltimore, 
led by Mrs. S. C. Fernandias and all of our Virginia movements 
have been and are headed by the most prominent and aristocratic 
white women. And here in your own city, Mrs. John Hope could 
not have accomplished what she has so successfully achieved had 
she not secured the help and cooperation of the white women of 
Atlanta. 

NEGRO LEADERSHIP 

The fact that the Negroes are themselves becoming better and 
more perfectly organized and are willing to accept the advice and 
leadership of their own race for racial betterment and civic im- 
provement makes it all the more easy for the leaders of these 
organizations to throw the weight of their influence on the side 
of sane cooperation with the best element of our Southern white 
people. Few private schools are started in any community but the 
Negroes always ask certain of the leading white people to become 
members of the Board of Trustees. If they do not wish to make 
them real trustees, which means owners of the property, they will 
devise some kind of an advisory Board so as to link white people 
to the movement and thus secure their advice and counsel, and 
finally their assistance and often their influence with the County 
School officials. 

BUSINESS COOPERATION 

There are in the South to-day about seventy Negro Banks owned, 
controlled and operated by Negroes, also numerous Building & 
Loan Associations. The Presidents or Cashiers of the white Banks 
not only have given advice to their Negro competitors as to the 
methods of banking, but have opened up their first set of books 
and started them oiT and in many places over-looked their methods 
and work until the Negro Banks could get on their feet. Only 
recently a Negro Bank in the City of Richmond came near having 
a " run " on it because of some erroneous report that was circu- 
lated in the community to the efifect that the Bank was in trouble, 
and several of the leading white banking institutions, through their 
Presidents, told the Negro Bank to pay all claims promptly, and 
that they would furnish the necessary money if it did not have the 
available cash. These Banks knew that the Negro Bank was abso- 
lutely safe and solid and they had absolute faith in the honesty and 
integrity of its black President. In almost every community the 
Negro and white business men are on terms of harmony and co- 
operation ; loaning and borrowing and buying and crediting as if 



i 



l66 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

I 

both were white or both were black. This spirit of business co- 
operation must and certainly will continue to grow. 

HEALTH 

It is perhaps along lines of health and sanitation that one finds 
the heartiest cooperation between the white and colored people. 
The Negroes have seen the possibility of a stronger and a more 
appealing plea to the white people for help and cooperation along 
lines of sanitation and hygiene than perhaps along any other line 
of racial activity. It is quite as important for the white people 
that the Negroes should be clean and healthful, physically, men- 
tally and morally as it is for colored people, and the white people 
see and understand this and are willing and glad to lend assistance 
and cooperation as perhaps in no other movement. Disease is 
common to all and though germinated in the Negro cabin, is very 
apt to find its way to the white mansion. Disease like vice and 
crime knows no color line. As a result of the very important meet- 
ing recently held in the City of New Orleans to start a health cam- 
paign throughout the South, the white people are urging the Negroes 
to enter into this movement and have met with very general re- 
sponse from colored people. 

NEGRO ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 

There grew out of our Hampton Negro Conference a movement 
which we have called the Negro Organization Society of Virginia. 
This movement has for its object the federation of all existing 
organizations in the State of Virginia of whatever kind or char- 
acter, whether religious, benevolent or secret societies, social or 
business conventions, farmers' conferences and whatnot, for the 
common purpose of general improvement of conditions among Ne- 
groes throughout the Old Dominion. Its motto is, " Better Schools, 
Better Health, Better Homes, Better Farms " among colored peo- 
ple. The Negro Organization Society seems to have about fed- 
erated all of these organizations, for never in the history of the 
race has any movement taken hold of the various phases of Negro 
activity as this movement has done, and though the movement is 
only about three years old, it has inspired the erection of some 
twenty-five graded schools in the State, to say nothing about im- 
proving the equipment and surroundings of two scores more. 

CLEAN-UP DAY 

We have just closed, on the 2nd of this month, what we call in 
Virginia a Clean-up Week. A year ago we had a Clean-up Day, 
but we made it a Clean-up Week this year for the reason that it 
was not convenient in many localities in the State, because of storms, ."* 

etc., to clean up on the day appointed, so we took a week. We 
asked the State Board, as well as the County Boards for their co- 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 167 

operation and their help. We prepared a special bulletin giving 
instructions in simple language that could be easily understood by 
colored people as to the best methods of preserving their health, etc., 
which we called the " Negro Health Hand-book." This the State 
Board of Health published almost as we gave it to them, at no 
expense to the Organization Society, about thirty thousand of these 
books which were put into the hands of the school teachers and 
preachers as well as Negro leaders throughout the State, and special 
sermons, health talks and lectures were delivered throughout the 
State of Virginia. We asked the white people, who employed col- 
ored people, to excuse and encourage as far as possible their em- 
ployes to clean up their premises, and while we have not the facts 
for the present year, we know that 130,000 people last year devoted 
the dav to general cleaning on their premises and disposing of rub- 
bish, white-washing their houses, outhouses and fences, and de- 
stroying breeding places for flies and mosquitoes. Perhaps the 
most significant thing accomplished in this health movement is that 
we got absolutely the cooperation and the backing of the leading 
papers and leading white people of Virginia. The new Hand-book 
has just been published, forty thousand copies of which have been 
distributed with results even more far-reaching than a year ago. 

Last November in Richmond, six thousand people gathered to 
hear the reports of the year's work. Something like a thousand of 
these were white and they represented the leading people of the 
City of Richmond and the State of Virginia. There were present 
and on the platform, the Governor of the State, the President of 
the Richmond ]\Iedical College, the Principal of Hampton Insti- 
tute and many leading Negroes, among them, Mrs. Maggie L. 
Walker and such men as Dr. Charles S. Morris and Dr. Booker T. 
W^ashington. Mrs. B. B. Munford, one of the leading white ladies 
of Virginia, was asked to speak on the subject " What white people 
can do to help colored people." Airs. Alunford opened her address 
with these words. " The best way," she said, " for white people 
to help colored people is for white people to believe in colored peo- 
ple." When speaking to the colored people later in the evening, 
I said the best way for colored people to help white people is for 
colored people to believe in white people. 

It seems to me, then, that if we live up to the spirit of the col- 
ored minister and the equally sincere and earnest advice from Mrs. 
Munford, we will have a clew to the maze of race prejudice and race 
misunderstanding and a key to the door of Christian cooperation 
and brotherhood, and this is the spirit and purpose of this Negro 
Christian Students' Conference. 



i68 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 



THE COOPERATION OF SOUTHERN WHITE PEOPLE 

DR. THOMAS JESSE JONES, 

Washington, D. C, Bureau of Education. 

I CAN think of no better introduction to my message than the 
quotation of some significant words spoken by Southern leaders at 
the Sociological Congress held a year ago in this city. On that 
occasion Dr. Arthur J. Barton of Texas said : 

" We are the Negro's debtor for services rendered ; we have been and are 
and shall continue to be the beneficiaries of his toil. For generations the 
Negro was our slave. He felled our forests, tilled our soil, gathered our 
harvests, tended our homes." 

Dr. W. D. Weatherford of Nashville, Tennessee, said: 

" I visited a large plantation where the plantation owners showed me 
$90,000 worth of gathered cotton, where there were hundreds of Negro fami- 
lies with children; yet when I drove by the schoolhouse, a half mile away 
from the headquarters of the plantation, it was such a place as was fit only 
for the housing of horses and cattle." 

Prof. W. O. Scroggs of Baton Rouge, La., said: 

" The crime of lynching is undoubtedly the source of more irritation, dis- 
trust, and despair on the part of the Negro than the sum total of all the other 
ills to which black flesh is heir. But its degrading efifect is even worse upon 
the white man who sanctions it and upon him who joins the mob. The for- 
mer is an anarchist and the latter a murderer. In the face of such prevalence 
of the mob spirit among the ignorant masses, why have bench and bar, 
preacher and teacher so long remained silent? When will Southern man- 
hood muster sufficient courage to challenge efifectively the sovereignty of the 
mob? 



"i 



" Better education, higher moral ideals, a general awakening of mind and 
spirit, the substitution of reason for prejudice and tradition, the socialization 
of religion — these are the fundamental needs of the hour. Above all, we 
must realize that as a race we cannot live wholly to our selves; if the black 
man is sinking we are not rising; that if he is going backward we are not 
going forward; and finally, that no social regime can long endure that is not 
founded on justice." 

These are the words of broad-visioned statesmen, true-hearted 
followers of Jesus Christ. Such noble sentiments lift us to the 
Mount of Transfiguration, where in exaltation of hope we would 
build us tabernacles that we may live apart from labor problems, 
crowded houses, dirty streets, national wars, the ravages of dis- 
ease, the conflict of races and all the other ills and quarrels to 
which mankind seems heir. 

The wisdom of Jesus was never more in evidence than in these 
retreats to the mountatin tops or to the quiet expanse of the wa- 
ters — the lonely places where with his chosen few he could look 
afar and think on and on until they beheld the inspiring vision of a 



I 

ft 



# 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 169 

people saved and a work well done. The pressure of the crowds, 
the endless discussions, the quarrels and differences within the holy 
group, the insults and demands from the selfish everywhere became 
oppressive. Constant association and contact with the same condi- 
tions blind and confuse, as a strong light, the eyes of those too 
near its heat and brilliancy. With the wisdom of the Master then 
let us withdraw from the valleys of many confusions. Let us leave 
behind for awhile the memories of quarrels and differences, of 
insults and failures, of discrimination and inefficiency. And let 
us ascend the mountain top and view the great forces that mold 
the destiny of the people who live in this Southland. 

Yonder, first of all, we behold the millions of white people. Be- 
side them stand the millions of colored people. And all about them 
are the fertile soil, the forests, the minerals and the unharnessed 
waterfalls, awaiting the trained mind and the skilled hand of both 
the white millions and the colored millions. Here then upon the 
mountain top of Christian Brotherhood let us use our imaginations 
that we may begin really to appreciate these great powers in their 
struggles for knowledge and happiness. The white group looms 
large and powerful in number and wealth and education and social 
experience. In numbers they are as twenty and a half millions to 
eight and a half millions of the colored. In wealth and education 
and comforts of homes the differences are equally marked. They 
are in control of the government and the schools and the customs 
of the land. No plan for the progress of the colored group is 
well considered that does not contemplate the cooperation of the 
white group. 

From our observation tower we also behold the eight and a half 
millions of colored people, scattered over every section of the South. 
In the fifty years since freedom was given to them, their illiteracy 
has been decreased from 90 or 95 per cent, to 30 per cent. ; almost 
a million of them are now farmers of varying degrees of independ- 
ence; a quarter of a million own their little farms and the total 
acreage of land owned by them aggregates 20 million acres of fer- 
tile soil. These facts are indisputable evidence that the colored 
people are capable of progress and also that their white neighbors 
have looked with favor upon their struggles and in many, many 
instances have actually given substantial aid to them in their en- 
deavors. 

Splendid as all these evidences of progress of the colored people 
are as a guarantee that the race will ultimately make good, as evi- 
dences of its present status they show that the masses of the col- 
ored people are just beginning to appreciate the economic possi- 
bilities and moral standards of Twentieth-Century civilization. 
Figures for death-rate and prison population are probably the best 
available statistical measures of the difficulties confronting the col- 
ored people both within and without the race. In giving these 



I/O THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

figures I desire to emphasize the fact that they reflect not only the 
ignorance and poverty, but also the unfavorable conditions in which 
the colored people are compelled to Hve. But whether the causes 
are within or without the race, the fact remains that the death-rate 
of the colored people is 24 per 1,000 as against 15 for the whites, 
and that the colored prisoners of the South Atlantic States were 
proportionally five times as many as the white prisoners. 

Just as the decrease of illiteracy and the ownership of land are 
sure evidences of the inherent worth of the colored people and of 
the genuine friendship of their white neighbors, so the high death- 
rate and the large prison population are certain proofs that there 
are serious problems of education within the race and unfortunate 
limitations placed upon them from without. 

With a conscious effort to avoid details and confusing issues, 
we have endeavored to view the two great human groups who are 
working out the destiny of the Southland. It is not necessary to 
dwell upon the third element. The marvelous resources of soil 
and timber and minerals and water power are the gifts of God 
awaiting that day when these two human groups shall have devel- 
oped skilled hands, trained minds and cooperative hearts to trans- 
form the wonderful material wealth of the Southland into spiritual 
forces of patriotism, statesmanship and Christian service. 

Obvious as these facts are to us all, the irritation of race contact 
and the pressing cares of daily toil frequently blind us to their 
fundamental importance in our plans and policies. Standing thus 
as upon the mountain top we behold the great white group with all 
its wealth and power, too frequently disdainful of the weaker 
group, yet conscious of its heroic men and women who lived and 
died for human rights. Close to them we see the colored group 
almost half in number struggling bravely, eagerly onward; fre- 
quently falling and failing but always pushing on. And all about 
them God's gifts in luxurious plenty waiting to be molded and 
transformed for the saving of both people. Under the inspiration 
of this threefold vision we bow before God in fervent prayer that 
the spirit of cooperation may arise in the hearts of the multitude 
and unite the thoughts of the white people and the colored people, 
even as the mists arise out of the valleys and make fields and the 
mountains into one glorious body. 

What are the evidences that our prayers for the spirit of co- 
operation will be answered? First of all, faith that all things are 
possible with God; faith in God's children of whatever race or 
color or language; faith in the ultimate triumph of God's love in 
human hearts. Nor is this faith without proof in the history of 
mankind. As the centuries roll on, we can see that: 



1 



"Through the ages, one increasing purpose runs, ^^ ^ 

And the minds of men are widened with the process of the suns." > 



,* 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS I/I 

The Gospel which was formerly for the chosen family of Israel 
has been proclaimed by Jesus Christ to be for all mankind. " God 
is our Father, and we are all his children." 

Even though we hear the murmurs of wars upon our Mexican 
borders and distant mumblings on occasions in the Oriental coun- 
tries, the Brotherhood of man was never nearer realization than it 
is to-day. The welding process is always accompanied by more or 
less clanging of anvils and firing of forges. So in the cooperation 
of the white and colored in the Southland, the sound of strident 
voices to the contrary may be louder, but the deep notes of right- 
eousness and justice sounded by Barton and Scroggs and Weather- 
ford and Mitchell and many others too numerous to mention are 
the voice of God announcing His programme of love and good will 
to the children of men. Why should we doubt the ultimate triumph 
of justice and brotherhood in the hearts of the white group? They 
belong to the w^orld group who more than all others have made 
democracy real and brotherhood efifective. Among their heroes are 
Judson, the missionary to Siam, Livingstone, the martyr to Africa, 
Lincoln, the champion of democracy and the liberator of slaves, 
Armstrong and Ogden and Ware, pioneers in the education of the 
Negro, and in the present time, Dr. John R. Mott, the inspiration 
of this significant occasion and leader of world-wide movements. 
From the Southland this same group sent Lapsley to give his life 
for the black people of Congo. Up and down these Southern 
States there still resound the echoes of Curry, Mclver and Northen 
pleading for the education of the colored people. Dillard of Vir- 
ginia, Claxton and Wicklifife Rose of Tennessee, Tate of South 
Carolina are representatives of a large group who never miss an 
opportunity to foster cooperation between the races. Jackson 
Davis of Virginia, Sibley of Alabama, Newbold of North Carolina, 
Favrot of Arkansas, Goddard of Georgia are splendid young South- 
ern men who are giving their whole time to improving the colored 
schools. Such movements as the Southern Sociological Congress, 
Commission of Southern Universities on Race Relations, Y. M. C. 
A. study classes on race questions in the white colleges of the 
South, are all forces indicating clearly the new tide towards broth- 
erhood. 

But more significant than the words or works of these well known 
people and institutions are the kindly contacts between white and 
colored neighbors that will never be known. These are the little 
personal loans to buy land or purchase a home, or to send a boy 
to school. They are the word of encouragement in time of trouble 
or advice on puzzling family problems. They are the favors and 
friendly exchanges between individuals of the two races, too numer- 
ous and varied for the imagination to follow. Could we realize 
the extent of these little kindly contacts, we would probably be 



172 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

surprised into the belief that Christian cooperation is by no means 
a distant possibility. In closing these illustrations of cooperation 
may I bring to you an experience from the life of Secretary Hun- 
ton whose serious illness we all so sincerely regret. It was the 
evening of the Atlanta riot. Secretary Hunton and all the other 
colored people of the city were in their homes with drawn blinds 
waiting with much anxiety the next move of the rioters. The 
bells of Clark university were sounding the call to prayer. Sud- 
denly he heard a knock at his back door. He opened the door 
and to his great surprise there stood his white neighbor with whom 
he had never spoken before. The neighbor pointed to an opening 
which he had made in the fence that separated the two houses and 
said: " If you need any help, come over." 

Yes, the latent possibilities of Christian fellowship between the 
races are just beginning to be discovered. And my plea to you, my 
brethren of the colored race, is that you permit no false prophet 
of your own race or misguided reactionary of the white race to 
weaken your faith in the ultimate friendship and cooperative inter- 
est of the Southern white people for the colored people of this 
section. God's plan for the solution of the race problem in the 
Southland is not in the philanthropies and wisdom of Northern 
people ; nor is it in the desires and struggles of the colored people ; 
nor yet in the first-hand knowledge and daily contacts of the South- 
ern white people. God's plan is in the combination of the best 
thought and the deepest sympathy and the most abiding faith of 
these three groups working with mutual faith in one another to 
realize the Kingdom of God here on earth. 



SIGNS OF GROWING INTEREST ON THE PART OF THE 
SOUTHERN WHITE MAN 

W. D. WEATHERFORD, Ph.D., 

Nashville, Tenn., Secretary in the Student Department, International Com- 
mittee of the Young Men's Christian Association. 

In thinking over afresh the signs of growing interest and co- 
operation between the races in the South I have been led to make 
a rapid survey of conditions obtaining in other countries where 
different races are brought into close juxtaposition. I have been 
interested to read more than one full volume on the conditions pre- 
vailing in Southeast Africa, where there are about five natives to 
every European, but where the condition of the black man is a 
hundredfold more difficult than those of our colored people in the 
South. Some two years ago I undertook a tour of investigation 
which brought me into seventeen different countries in many of 
which racial problems were most acute. In Turkey, for illustra- 



1 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 173 

tion, we saw the bitter hatred between Jews, Mohammedans, Druses, 
Koords and Armenians. These divisions are partly racial and partly 
credal but they are divisions and sub-divisions as deep as the lives 
of men. The Moslems look down upon the non-Moslems or 
" Raga " as they are called, consider that they have no rights which 
a Mohammedan need respect, and treat them with cruelty in the 
extreme. In Southeast Europe the conditions are no better. Dif- 
ferences in language, religion, political ideals, and social customs, 
have broken life into segments — the members of each group hat- 
ing the members of every other with all the virulence of their na- 
tures. 

I have heard it said here in the South that we have not made as 
much progress in race cooperation as has been made in some other 
parts of the world. Now I am aware that there are many diffi- 
culties and problems yet unsolved, but my reading and my own 
personal observation lead me to say that in no other nation in the 
world where two widely separated racial types live side by side, 
is there so much mutual respect, mutual confidence and genuine 
cooperation as that which we have here in the South. We are not 
only decades and even centuries ahead of other nations in our ad- 
justment of race problems, but I honestly believe that it has been 
given to us, by the power of almighty God, to show to the world 
what can be done under the spell of high ideals and religious con- 
secration to bring men into this vital brotherhood even though we 
may be as far apart in our racial instincts as are the white and 
the black — perhaps the two most distinctive races in the world. 

My study of conditions in other lands led me to the deliberate 
conclusion, that the chief underlying cause for our better under- 
standing here, may be found not simply in the fact of our common 
language and religion, but in the peculiar spirit which dominates 
the religion of Jesus Christ. No other religion in the world is so 
fitted to stand the strain of race problems as is Christianity. No 
other religion in the world lays such deep and vital stress on the 
sacredness of the individual man, which is the very foundation 
and cornerstone of all inter-racial understanding and respect. To 
be sure Mohammedanism admits all adherents into its rights — and 
seemingly puts all on a common social basis, but the deep cleavage 
between man and man which persists in Mohammedanism can never 
be bridged by any force inherent in that religion — simply because 
that religion has no inherent valuation of man. No religion which 
degrades womanhood, and despises the deepest sanctities of life, 
can possibly have within it the power to dignify life and make 
humanity sacred, for we cannot despise and degrade a part of 
humanity and still hope to keep true our personal values. The fact 
is that in most of these countries religion is one of the chief sources 
of irritation rather than a power for amelioration. 

It is, therefore, most fitting that in a conference on religious con- 



174 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

ditions this question of cooperation between the races should be 
given prominence. Here and only here can a deep note of op- 
timism be struck — for it is Christianity alone which gives a 
motive big enough and true enough to float our lives out of the 
shallows of pessimism and prejudice into the great sea of mutual 
confidence, cooperation and brotherhood. 

There are at least four forms of cooperation Avhich at this pres- 
ent hour show the spirit of Southern white men toward this prob- 
lem — and each of these throw light on and lend encouragement to 
this whole subject. 

The first is a determined effort on the part of the Southern white 
man to know in broadest terms the life of the Southern Negro. 
This is no morbid curiosity, neither is it a passing fad — but it is 
a deep-seated determination that by reading, observation, discus- 
sion and actual service we shall come to know the fundamental 
aspirations and needs of the Negro race. This of course is the 
first step toward helpful cooperation. 

I am well aware that some have supposed that there is less in- 
terest now than there was a few years ago. There are fewer maga- 
zine articles and less agitation. Ambassador Walter Page, who 
was formerly editor of World's Work, told me a few months ago 
that there was far less interest in the North and East at present 
than formerly. He said the East was surfeited on race articles. 
But that is certainly not true in the South. Miss Helm's book on 
the " Upward Path," written by a Southern woman and sold al- 
most entirely in the South, passed the twenty thousand mark within 
eighteen months after its publication. That is a marvelous sale for 
any book dealing with a social problem. I make bold to assert 
that there have been more volumes on the Negro read by South- 
ern white people in the last five years than were read in all the 
fifty years preceding. There is a genuine eagerness and hunger for 
sane and accurate facts on these lines. 

A second sign of growing interest is the determination on the 
part of the best element in the South, to have a share in the re- 
ligious and social uplift of the Negro race. The white delegates 
at this conference are a testimony to this deep and abiding inter- 
est. T have recently sent letters to all of the United States farm 
demonstration agents in the South asking them if they were helping 
any Negroes to become better farmers, through scientific training. 
In almost everv case they replied that thev were helping one. two, 
and on up to a dozen Negro farmers. They indicated deep sym- 
pathy and interest and said that these farmers were among their 
most willing and capable colaborers. One man, a former student 
who was active in the Young Men's Christian Association work in 
college wrote that he found the Negroes so willing and so apt in 
taking instruction, that it was a genuine pleasure to cooperate with 
them. Nearly all of these men reported that Negro farmers were 



« 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 175 

buying land and improving their home conditions, and that with the 
most cordial approval of the white communities. 

During the last six months I have had letters from literally scores 
of County Superintendents of education throughout the South. 
In almost every case they are planning big things for the future 
uplift of the Negro schools. They were holding County institutes 
for colored teachers with as much thoroughness and enthusiasm 
as they are holding institutes for white teachers. They are visiting 
the Negro schools as they have never been visited before. They 
are helping to provide the funds for Industrial Supervising teach- 
ers, they are giving care and attention to the proper construction 
of new school buildings. In every way they are giving the Negro 
school the most thorough cooperation. 

The way in which many of our choicest Southern men are giving 
themselves to this work of cooperation is also significant. It means 
something when Dr. and Mrs. Hammond from the Methodist 
church, Dr. Snedecor and Dr. and Mrs. Little from the Presby- 
terian church, not to mention a host of others whose spirits are 
equally consecrated, have given themselves to this great task of 
helping the Negro. It means something when Dr. James H. Dil- 
lard, Mr. Jackson Davis, Mr. J. L. Sibley, and a number of other 
splendid rnen are giving their lives without reserve to the intel- 
lectual uplift of this people. The time has come when many of 
the very choicest spirits in our Southland are ready and glad to 
share whatever blessing education and Christianity have brought, 
with our brother in black. 

I want also to mention a third sign of growing cooperation. 
This one lies not in the realm of deeds — it goes deeper than deeds, 
it lies in the realm of attitude and motive. The people of the South 
have always had a kindly feeling toward the colored people, but it 
is only of recent years that it could be said that they have come 
to feci that the mass of colored people were actually going to make 
real progress. In other words we are coming to have a broad 
and genuine confidence in the future of the race. I am not inter- 
ested in a Chinese because he is a Chinese. I am not interested 
in a Negro because he is a Negro. I am interested in both be- 
cause they are men, because in them throb the same human heart, 
the same human aspirations, the same human passions as throb 
in my heart. I am interested in this race because it is a race of 
God's children, because I believe God yearns to have them grow 
into His likeness as He yearns to have all men grow into^ His like- 
ness. And one of the most hopeful signs of our time, lies in our 
growing confidence that this race is making genuine progress. We 
believe the Negro is moving upward into respectability, into effi- 
ciency, into Christian character. We believe they have inherent 
qualities of loyalty, faithfulness, nobility, and religious responsive- 
ness. We believe that these qualities under the guidance of God 






176 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 



and Christian environment can be made to bloom into high and | 

noble character. We believe that this generation of better trained 
colored people will have sanity and judgment enough to see that 
character and not clothes, manliness and not mannerisms will 
finally count. We believe that those sterling qualities which made 
the early slaves faithful, trustworthy, loyal, devoted, will when the 
race has found time to adjust itself to the conditions of a larger 
race life, ripen into a more beautiful fruitage than slavery was 
ever able to show. 

Again and again in my addresses to the white people of the 
South I have recounted the faithful heroism of David Livingstone's 
followers, when the great missionary died in the heart of Africa, 
more than a thousand miles from the coast, for this illustrates bet- 
ter than I can tell the splendid characteristics of this race. Mr. 
Home in his Biography of Livingstone tells this story very simply: 

" With the death of the hero, most biographies perforce end. 
In this respect Livingstone's story is wholly unique. The most 
thrilling and sensational chapter remains to be written. It would 
have been easy for the men to have hurried the body in the ground, 
divided the property among themselves, and dispersed to their 
homes. Perhaps the last thing to be expected was that they would 
shoulder the dead body, and carry it from the center of Africa, 
more than a thousand miles, through a hostile and inhospitable coun- 
try, to the ocean. Yet this was what they did ; while the method, 
order and reverence of their proceedings would have done honor 
to the wisest and most civilized of our race. 

" The dead man's possessions were collected, the boxes opened 
in the presence of all, and Jacob Wainwright made a careful and 
exact inventory on a page of Livingstone's little metallic pocket- 
book, in which his own last entries had been made. The next busi- 
ness was to appoint Susi and Chumah, the oldest and most experi- 
enced of Livingstone's followers, as leaders of the expedition. All 
promised to obey their orders ; and all kept their word. 

" The first practical step, after making the inventory, was a 
remarkable one. Outside Chitambo's village the men erected a small 
settlement of their own, fortified by a stockade. Here they built 
a circular hut, open to the sky, but strong enough to resist any 
attack of wild beasts, and in this they laid the body of Livingstone. 
His followers were stationed all around like a guard of honor. 
The body was dried in the sun for fourteen days. So emaciated 
was it that there was little more than skin and bone. For coffin, 
they stripped the bark ofi a Myonga tree ' in one piece ' ; the corpse 
was carefully enveloped in calico and inserted in the bark cylinder. 
The whole was sewn up in a piece of sail-cloth and lashed to a 
pole, so that it could be carried on the men's shoulders. Then 
Jacob Wainwright carved Livingstone's name and the date of 
his death on the tree standing near where the body rested. Chi- 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 177 

tambo was charged to keep the ground free from grass lest bush- 
fires should burn the tree. Finally they erected two strong posts, 
with a crossbeam, and covered them thoroughly with tar, so that 
the spot might be definitely identified. They seem to have forgot- 
ten nothing that could be done to keep in perpetual memory the 
place where Livingstone breathed his last. 

" It seemed at the outset as if all their hopes were to be frus- 
trated. In three days half the expedition were down with fever. 
Two women died. Susi became critically ill, and could not move. 
They were delayed a whole month, and only started again to break 
down once more. It was not till they had crossed the great Lua- 
pula River — four miles broad — that things went better with them. 
Near where the river Liposhosi flows into the lake at Chawendes 
village, the expedition was unfortunately brought into active con- 
flict with the chief and his tribe, and a regular affray took place 
in which blood was shed and many native houses burned. It is 
probable that a calmer and stronger leadership might have averted 
this ; but it was proof of the determination of the devoted band to 
defend their precious burden with their lives." 

Finally they met the white men sent out from England to hunt 
for Livingstone. " Lieutenant Cameron was decidedly in favor of 
burying the body in African soil ; he also took the liberty of appro- 
priating most of Livingstone's instruments to the use of his expedi- 
tion. This latter act the men were powerless to resist, but in re- 
gard to the former they were not to be moved. It was useless to 
argue with them as to the disturbed district between Unyanyembe 
and the coast. They had made up their minds that the great Doc- 
tor must ' go home.' " 

Yonder in Westminster Abbey in the center of the nave a slab 
marking the last resting place of the noble missionary reads : — 

BROUGHT BY FAITHFUL HANDS 

OVER LAND AND SEA 

HERE RESTS 

DAVID LIVINGSTONE 
MISSIONARY, TRAVELER, PHILANTHROPIST, ETC. 

Remember these followers of Livingstone came out of the very 
heart of savage paganism — they had had no Christian environ- 
ment save that of one great soul. 

I have said many times to both my white and colored friends that 
any race which can produce a group of faithful followers like those 
who did this deed of love, must have within it enough of inherent 
love, heroism, faithfulness and loyalty to make it a great race. 
It is our business with the help of God and through Christian en- 
vironment to bring these nobler qualities to their fullest blossom. 
I believe in the race, thousands of Southern white men believe in 



1/8 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

it, and as the Christian graces continue to blossom in their lives, 
all men will be constrained to have this faith. The growth of the 
spirit of Christ in my heart and in your heart and in the hearts 
of all, will alone make possible that spirit of brotherhood which 
will ultimately solve the problem of race adjustment. 

I do not want you to forget that the final solvent of this race 
relation is Christianity. There is no other force in the world which 
can do it. Education alone will not do it. Privileges and rights 
for either or both races will not do it. The final argument will be 
transformed lives. Our relations in the South will come to be 
what they ought to be only so fast as the spirit of Jesus comes to 
dominate the heart of the colored man and the white man alike. 
Religion alone can make us considerate of each other. 



MINISTERS IN COOPERATION 

JAMES G. SNEDECOR, LL.D., 

Tuscaloosa, Ala., Superintendent of Colored Work in the Home Mission 
Committee, Southern Presbyterian Church. 

To cooperate is to work together for some desirable purpose. 
In the proposition before us, who are the parties? and what is the 
desired purpose? 

The parties are ministers of religion. They live here in the 
Southern States. That insures that they have some common ties 
and hopes. 

On the other hand they are essentially strangers ; they belong to 
a variety of denominations, and may possess sectarian prejudice 
toward each other. They belong to different races, and this fact 
justifies the assertion that they possess another sort of prejudice — 
universal, inborn, subtle and unexpected. It goes without saying 
that it is also unchristian and unreasonable. 

These are the parties and a hint of the difficulty they have before 
them in cooperating for each other's welfare. Selfish and lazy 
people have dismissed the subject from their attention. We have 
gathered here to-day at the call of good men who are convinced 
that the present attitude of indifiference between ministers of reli- 
gion of the white and black races in the South is ungodly and 
unscriptural. 

The purpose of cooperation is to help each other along the straight 
and narrow way, and to enlarge the number walking therein. This 
programme includes every good thing that makes for happy prog- 
ress : Manners, morals, good thoughts and strong, clean bodies. 

The prime advice I would give about cooperation is that its birth 
and being be nurtured in a religious atmosphere. It is a temptation 
to a public advocate to appeal to popular motives. I am advocating 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 179 

unpopular duties. Why not appeal to self-interest? There are 
economical, industrial and financial arguments that are easy to urge 
on Southern audiences, but they produce no moral and lasting con- 
victions. 

Pardon a personal experience. Ten years ago I was asked to 
lead a movement intended to arouse in the white membership of our 
church (Southern Presbyterian) an interest in the education and 
uplift of Negro people, and incidentally to get that interest prac- 
tically expressed by the gift of about $20,000 per annum. I was 
tempted to take the line of least resistance and, to show that to 
train efficient Negroes would pay better than to import the pauper 
labor of Southern Europe — a promising fad hereabouts some 
years ago. Fortunately, I resisted this temptation and have steadily 
based my appeal on the scriptural and religious obligation of the 
strong to the weak and of the fortunate to the unfortunate. 

The finest white folks in the South are the descendants of the 
old slave-owning class, and they never dodge the religious appeal, 
with slight reminders of their personal indebtedness to the Negro. 
The twenty thousand dollars is coming regularly, and better still, a 
more reasonable and tolerant sentiment must come with the widen- 
ing horizon. 

The South is the more religious and sentimental part of our 
country. You, my friends, may be glad that your homes are here, 
and I am glad your great Apostle of Good Sense tells you so 
earnestly to stay here. 

It grieves me though that you make so little appeal to either the 
religion or tradition of the land. The mistakes of Reconstruction 
have never been atoned for, and have left smoldering disappoint- 
ment in one party, bitter recollections in the other, and growing in- 
difference in both. 

The Southern man is so religious he never turns a deaf ear to 
an appeal for help in any good cause. I am sure there are not a 
dozen churches in the South belonging to colored people which the 
white neighbor did not help to build. Follow up this open avenue 
to his heart. Use this church building in a proper way. Keep 
lazy and corrupt men out of its pulpit. Abolish the noisy orgies 
of false emotion which now discount the Negroes' religious exer- 
cises on every hand. 

I am sorry that a schoolhouse does not make the same appeal. 
We fail to realize that the schoolhouse must stand with the church 
to guarantee its proper use. We find it so in China and Brazil 
and Mexico and Africa. We must join hands and hearts to make 
these churches and schoolhouses places of power out of which 
streams of blessing shall flow. These ministers can unite in their 
respective localities and devise plans for a new campaign in evan- 
gelism that knows no color-line. These holy places might become 
exchanges where the jewels of culture and experience might find 



l8o THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

new owners, and yet everybody become the richer, those who give 
and those who receive. 

Under the auspices of religion, meetings to encourage every good 
word and work can be held, from a preaching service to a cooking 
class ; from a Sunday school to a Saturday school for farmers. If 
a " thus saith the Lord " can be quoted, one's credentials here in 
the South are secure. In the aristocratic city of Tuscaloosa a 
Sunday school was conducted for many years in a Negro church 
by General Johnston, one of the last surviving Confederate briga- 
diers. Since his death, three years ago, it has been continued by 
his wife and other ladies of the First Presbyterian Church. 

If the colored pastors will give their cooperation, which they can 
do without any compromise of their position, they can assume the 
lead and bring to their people a powerful influence for brightening 
and refining, by encouraging these Christian white people to come 
into their churches to teach. I believe that every colored Sunday 
school could find a white teacher for one or two or more classes. 
Think of what a power for true uplift this would give at once 
throughout our Southern States. 

A thoughtful Negro pastor once said to me, " It is hard for the 
white people to realize how difficult we find the task of maintaining 
efficient Sunday schools. Many of our people cannot control their 
hours of Sunday service; and it is hard to convince them that we 
can provide teachers competent to instruct them and their chil- 
dren." Suppose now the Negro pastor could say, " If you and 
your children are here promptly, every Sunday, I can provide one 
of the best teachers in the town." I would like to see this test 
of their Christianity put up to the white people of the South. 

The next general factor which it will be well for us to remember 
in our cooperative movements is that they must be reciprocal. 
Each has duties that are personal and responsive. If the response 
goes no further than appreciation, that is so far good, it will pro- 
voke further efiFort. Let no man be rightfully charged with in- 
gratitude — whatever his race or color. 

It is an intended kindness to say that the Negro is the white 
man's burden, but it is greater kindness to remember that the 
Negro did not dump himself on the white man, and that he is grow- 
ing an easier burden year by year. How few white people carry 
the burden with any care or grace ; though it was brought by the 
action of their own fathers and grandfathers. 

A thoughtful Methodist elder once told me that the chief diffi- 
culty in maintaining standards of personal purity and righteousness 
in their congregations, was the lack of cooperation on the part of 
the white people. If an employe in a Christian home went wrong, 
it rarely occurred that any notice was taken of it, so long as no 
interruption in the service was caused. This is generally true. 

When the enforcement of discipline seems to depend upon selfish 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS l8l 

motives on the one side, we need not be shocked to hear it con- 
stantly said that the Negro race will not voluntarily expose any 
guilty one of their own color. 

If the white people fail to respect and honor the efforts of the 
Negro to raise the standard of purity and righteousness, how hope- 
less is their task. This elder referred to a single instance where 
an unworthy mulatto, who persisted in sin, was disciplined, and 
was gently dealt with, but who laughed at repentance and scoffed 
at the church, stating that she had not lost the respect of any of 
the white Christian families for whom she occasionally worked as 
nurse. Just at this juncture if one of these Christian women should 
have talked with the erring one as to a sister, and firmly and sor- 
rowfully severed the tie that bound them, the effect would have 
been enormous in that church and community. It would have re- 
flected the light of the cross upon sin, and set a new value upon 
virtue. 

It is amazing how much the white minister knows about his 
neighbors and how little he does. Undoubtedly this is caused by 
the absence of sympathy. Even the appeal that fellow-citizenship 
makes is entirely lacking. What have the white ministers done to 
dissipate the notion that the Negro is an alien? 

To sympathize with each other, we must get acquainted. There 
is no more empty boast than one often heard, that we of the South 
know the Negro. We know him just as we know a neighbor who 
has worked for us, but whose home we have never visited, and with 
whom we never had a sympathetic word. Our knowledge has to 
do with the outside and material. We know that this neighbor is 
poor; but we know nothing of the gall and grind of unequal bur- 
dens and the hopelessness of closed doors of opportunity. We see 
their children grow up in vicious surroundings and doomed to crime 
from infancy. We know 80 per cent, of our convicts are Negroes. 
Yes, we know the Negro in the South, and yet every avenue of 
spiritual fellowship is closed. We know nothing to make us pa- 
tient, everything to irritate. 

This attitude is becoming confirmed because it begins to be ac- 
quired in infancy. 

Some people are so narrow and self-centered they refuse to think 
sanely upon any subject settled half a century ago by their grand- 
fathers. I was sitting in a lovely home in Montgomery, some 
years ago, when there was a knock at the back door. A little child 
was told to find out the trouble. She came running back, after 
slamming the door, and said, " Mamma, it was nobody — just a 
nigger ! " 

What a flash into that child's environment ! She will grow up to 

join the unnumbered thousands here, who cannot " think in black." 

To insure results, my next suggestion is that our conference 

here to-day be clear and frank. Let us call the spade by its name, 



1 82 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

though it is used immediately to dig the grave of our dearest 
theory. For instance, I believe all Christian people, white and 
colored, are agreed that the chief difficulty in the way of the purpose 
of this missionary conference is the aloofness of the races. That 
the public demand for segregation is growing rather than decreas- 
ing should put us all on inquiry. Not often in the history of na- 
tions has one Avith such high and historic ideals of the freedom 
and equality of man been so shackled with racial and class distinc- 
tions as the white race in America. 

There is danger when people live on hearsay terms. " They say " 
speaks with bated breath and tells but half the truth. How can 
ministers alleviate the difficulty? Begin by inviting some white 
brother to preach for you. Our General Assembly once requested 
all of its ministers to preach at least once a month in some colored 
church. A few reported compliance with this request ; but the 
larger number of those who reported at all said that no colored 
pulpit was open to them. I suspect it was their manner of ap- 
proach that closed the church. 

The case of the schoolhouse as a platform for cooperation is not 
so hopeful. This arises from the expectation of the white people 
of the South that education, by some awful exception to general 
principles, will not make the Negro sensible. To educate him will 
ruin a good plow hand, is the flippant opinion from Virginia to 
Texas. 

The result of a little learning will, for some generations, be 
mixed with crude and superficial manners, but do not forget that 
after centuries of educational experiments the white man has just 
decided to train his own son as a plowman ! Industrial education 
is now very popular among the whites, yet many fear to trust the 
Negro with it. Give the Negro time, and by time I am speaking 
in terms of quarter centuries. Meantime use the schoolhouses 
(after doubling their number) as places, accredited by public senti- 
ment, where the Anglo-Saxon mental force may correct crudity and 
superficiality in other folks. 

There are two facts full of potentiality to which I rarely hear a 
reference. First; the "business" Governor of Alabama. W. D. 
Jelks, a few years ago published in the North American Reviezv (I 
am sorry it was not in the Saturday Evening Post!) a serious and 
thoughtful article advocating the employment of white teachers in 
all colored schools, as the quickest way of atoning for past mistakes 
and preventing future trouble. He said he would get the teachers, 
by making the same appeal that Christian leaders make to get 
volunteers for Africa and China and Mexico. 

The second profound fact is that at the headquarters of Southern 
sentiment, Charleston. South Carolina, the colored public schools 
are taught by white women. Should it be regarded as a strange 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 183 

thing that the language and manners of Charleston Negroes is the 
envy of the black South? 

In maintaining sexual purity; in enforcement of law; in raising 
the standard of temperance; in abating disease; in providing health- 
ful and happy homes and occupations ; in increasing the efficiency 
of educational methods and equipment ; in short, in the great realm 
of social Christianity, there are broad stretches of land awaiting the 
cultivation of brotherly hands in cooperative effort. 

I close by citing a notable example of mutual helpfulness. For 
years the white Presbyterians of the South have been urged to 
thoroughly equip the valuable site of Stillman Institute, their reli- 
gious training school for Negroes, at Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A 
Negro man in Missouri hearing of this school from his white 
friends, was so impressed with the opportunity for usefulness, that 
he made his will giving his entire estate to Stillman Institute, re- 
serving a life interest to his faithful wife, whose industry and 
thrift contributed largely to his investments. I am trusting to be 
permitted to see a memorial building at Stillman, to cost not less 
than $50,000, dedicated to the memory of Charles and Betty Birth- 
right. 



COOPERATION BETWEEN PASTORS OF WHITE AND 

COLORED CHURCHES 

R. O. FLYNN, D.D., 

Atlanta, Ga., Pastor North Ave. Presbyterian Church. 

The religious life of any people, so long as their religion is not 
decadent, must ever prove an important factor in shaping their 
history and determining their destiny. Likewise, the religious 
leaders of any people must ever exert an immense influence in de- 
termining the character of their religious life. Because the religious 
life of the Negro race is not decadent and because their pastors 
exert an influence over them to a degree that is unparalleled by 
the spiritual leadership of any other people on this continent, it is 
important that we who are the pastors of the white race secure the 
cooperation of those who are the pastors of the Negro race in any 
programme concerning them we may project. 

Furthermore, no matter what may be our interest and no matter 
how much good-will we may feel, it is manifestly necessary that 
in order to advance any plans which can materially help their cause 
we must catch their point of view and enter into the largest possi- 
ble understanding of their intimate and evident needs. 

The practical question I am to introduce is, " How can we who 
are pastors of the white race cooperate with those who are the 



l84 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

pastors of the Negro race so as to secure for both this larger 
understanding? " 

It is a pleasure to realize in this discussion that we may address 
ourselves to history rather than to theory. We admit that much 
remains to be done to bring the ministry of our two races into sym- 
pathetic touch, and that much more remains to be done to secure 
a similar result among our several peoples ; yet it is a satisfaction 
to realize that much has already been done, that much is being 
done, and that much more is on the way of being done toward the 
attainment of this purpose. 

Within a remarkable recent time many of us have experienced 
great changes within ourselves and have noted similar changes in 
the attitude of those about us. 

We heard yesterday through Major Moton of Hampton Insti- 
tute of the State-wide cooperative effort of the whites and blacks 
in Virginia by which the interests of the colored race have already 
been greatly advanced. To this I might add, if time allowed, a 
recital at length of similar cooperative movements in this city in 
which you are now assembled. Some of these movements we men- 
tion in brief, not merely as indicating phases of cooperation which 
may seem to lead to a larger understanding, but phases of cooper- 
ation which have already led to a larger understanding. 

One of these was a recent effort to revive an almost abandoned 
endeavor to build in Atlanta a colored Y. M. C. A. The accom- 
plishment of this enterprise seemed a forlorn hope, after i8 months 
only $5,000 of the $50,000 subscribed by the Negroes of Atlanta 
had been paid in. The $25,000 offered by the white citizens of this 
city and the $25,000 offered by Mr. Julius Rosenwald of Chicago 
upon the condition of the Negroes raising their subscriptions was 
about to be lost, when through the initiative of Mr. W. Woods 
White, a Christian layman and a Southern white man, the Negro 
ministers and laymen of all denominations were united and the 
help of a large number of the white ministers was enlisted to put 
the matter through. 

In their effort to assist, white ministers repeatedly left their own 
pulpits on Sabbath mornings, or their studies on week nights and 
Sabbath afternoons to preach in colored pulpits. 

The by-products of this movement have proven even greater than 
the primary object. Chief among these is the fine spirit of fra- 
ternity between the Negro churches of all denominations and the 
ministry of both races ; a spirit whose stimulating influence it would 
be difficult to overstate. 

Another of those movements has been the invitation on the 
part of some of the white denominational Ministerial Associations 
to their colored brethren of corresponding Associations to meet 
with them at stated times, or during special services. In one in- 
stance, viz : at the Presbyterian Ministers' Association, composed of 



I 

I 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 185 

white ministers of the Southern Assembly, an invitation to full 
membership was extended to the pastor of the only Negro Presby- 
terian church in this city, which church is connected with the North- 
ern Assembly. 

Beginning next Sabbath, May 17, the thirty colored Baptist 
churches of this city will hold simultaneous evangelistic meetings 
with the thirty-four white Baptist churches of Atlanta. During 
these meetings it is planned to have the ministers and religious 
workers of both races meet together in the First Baptist Church, 
white, at noon and then again in the afternoon in the Wheat Street 
Baptist Church, colored. The same speakers will address both of 
these gatherings. 

Several years ago the Evangelistic Ministers' Association of At- 
lanta, composed of white ministers from all of our churches, invited 
Dr. Proctor, who is pastor of a colored Congregational Church, to 
address them upon this matter of how we, the white ministers, may 
best assist our colored brethren in their work. His paper was so 
excellent and so illuminating that it was printed and distributed 
broadcast by the Association. 

Each year for some sixteen years past, there has been held in the 
city of Atlanta a March Bible Conference, to which the leading 
Bible teachers of the world have gathered as speakers. A space in 
the gallery has always been reserved for such Negro ministers as 
have cared to attend these Conferences. But this year a large space 
was assigned them on the main floor, and one-half of the gallery 
in the building was set aside for Negro students on a special day 
when the students of both races were invited to attend in a body. 
Not only so, but the directors of the Conference, feeling that the 
sixty thousand Negroes of Atlanta should share equally with the 
white citizens in the benefits of this Conference, arranged so that 
the same speakers who were addressing the white congregations 
throughout the day and evening, spoke in the evening to the Ne- 
groes in their largest church and under the auspices of a committee 
of Negro pastors composed of representatives from all their various 
denominations. 

Feeling that Negroes were in need of help along the lines of 
sanitation and better housing, a few of the Christian laymen and 
ministers made a survey, accumulated facts and had photographs 
and slides made, so as to bring these matters to the attention of the 
proper authorities. Although a great deal yet remains to be done, 
it is a source of satisfaction to realize that already conditions have 
been bettered and that with a more general knowledge concerning 
needed reforms they will continue to improve. 

Through the Laymen's Missionary Movement of Atlanta (which 
at present is a committee composed of white ministers and laymen 
appointed by and reporting to the Evangelical Ministers' Associa- 
tion) great things have been accomplished on behalf of convicts, 



l86 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

who, in the main with us, are Negroes. Their camps have been 
rendered sanitary ; their food improved ; cruel officials have been 
removed; stripes have been taken off the prisoners, and where 
formerly those who were working the roads were compelled to 
walk for miles to and from their camps, while the guards rode in 
the otherwise empty wagons, the men are now allowed to ride; 
and many other humane measures have been effected. 

When the Southern Sociological Congress was held in this city 
in April, 1913, the Negro delegates were assigned sittings in the 
five churches in which the various meetings connected with the 
Conference were held. These sittings were equal in every way to 
the sittings assigned the others. 

Our city is now supplied for the first time in its history, and 
so far as we know in the history of any city in the South, with 
two Negro police matrons, who act as probation officers in handling 
the woman, girl and boy problem presented by the criminal classes 
of their race. In securing these matrons both the white and col- 
ored Christians combined their effort and their salary is now pro- 
vided by the colored pastors of Atlanta. 

Finally, as an issue from these movements, and the mutual un- 
derstanding which they have promoted between the Christian minis- 
ters and other leaders of the two races, there has resulted a spirit 
of respect and confidence which promises much for the future. 
Prominent members of the Negro race have stated to members of 
the white race that since the white Christians have begun to show 
such definite interest in their people and their needs, they have 
felt stronger and safer and have slept sweeter than ever before; 
knowing they have in the white ministry and Christian laymen those 
who understand their problems, who sympathize with them in their 
efforts to lift up their race and who will speak for them, and stand 
by them in any crisis they may meet. 

These are some of the movements which have proven helpful in 
promoting good-will and leading to a larger understanding between 
the two races in this community. 

Among the factors with which we are acquainted which make 
for a larger understanding and a greater cooperation among the 
religious leaders of the two races, there is none which in our esti- 
mation, will prove more effective than this Conference in which 
we are now assembled. 

It is a thrilling experience to stand at the headwaters of a mighty 
river, across which at its source one can easily step, and to think 
how as it advances its broadening currents will fertilize fields, de- 
fine national boundaries, and bear upon their crests the commerce 
of a world. 

I am persuaded that in the providence of God we are standing 
in such a place to-day. We are at the headwaters of such a 
stream, a stream of influence whose future reach, whose coming 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 187 

sweep, whose depth and volume it is impossible for us at present to 
compute. 

When the leaders of our two races discuss, as we are discussing 
in the spirit of candor and good-will, the problems affecting these 
two races, with the purpose of solving these problems for the bet- 
terment of both, and when this discussion is held before a carefully- 
chosen congregation of picked Negro students from all of the 
higher institutions of learning in our land, there cannot but result 
a heightening of intelligence, a deepening of sympathy, and an en- 
largement of cooperative effort. 

I believe that this Conference is providential and that many 
similar Conferences should be held. I believe that those who first 
conceived it and all who have promoted it are worthy of all honor 
as having come upon the stage for such a time as this. I am glad 
that I am allowed the privilege of being present at the birth of a 
movement which has already accomplished good and which I be- 
lieve is destined to become historic. 

I confess to a gratified surprise at the evidence of signal strength 
and culture displayed by many of the Negro men and women who 
have taken part in this Conference. Their style has been chaste, 
their reasoning sound ; their eloquence moving. 

There have been summaries given by them on important themes 
as succinct, compact, and comprehensive as could have been ex- 
pected from the best speakers of our own more favored race. 

There have been frank confessions made and statements of con- 
ditions so adroitly put that their keen edge has cut into our con- 
sciences ere we could shrink their smart. 

There have been stories of ugly experiences that have been so 
candid as to have proven caustic had not the tolerant patience, the 
genial good-will and the contagious sense of humor of the one 
reciting them disarmed our defense and made their application 
almost comfortable. 

There has been an earnestness of attention, a quickness of com- 
prehension, and a fine responsiveness on the part of this remark- 
ably intelligent audience of young Negro college men and women 
that betokens the talent and temper of their coming leadership. 

Rejoicing as I do in all the progress that you have made, I am 
glad that you have not yet completed your task ; that there is much 
left yet for you to do, and that in the doing of it you are in the 
need of help which we can give. For I am anxious to give this 
aid and am glad to live here and now in order that I may render it. 
I must in all frankness add, however, that I have until now felt 
much more interest than I could show. I have been unable to dis- 
cover how I could aid you in solving your greater problems without 
giving offense — and I venture to suggest that my experience has 
been that of many others. My brethren, we want to help you. 
Show us how ! 



l88 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

The religion of Christ alone can furnish a foundation stable 
enough, and His evangel alone can supply a constraint strong 
enough, for the rearing of such character and the rendering of such 
service as will make possible the full federation of our two separate 
people, and as ministers of this gospel, it is the privilege of each of 
us to have a part in this greater task. Let us then, who preach 
this gospel to the white people and you who preach this same 
gospel to the black people, so proclaim it and so illustrate its spirit 
and precepts in our own lives, that our two races, which are 
divided by color, history and customs may be united in the fear of 
God, and dwell together with all due respect and mutual service. 

Let us so advise and guide the two races that they shall each 
be in their attitude toward the other both patient and hopeful, exer- 
cising a Christ-like charity which shall enable them to rise above 
all racial selfishness and prejudice, and render to each other that 
which is just and right. Thus only may those who are differenti- 
ated by race be federated by grace. 

Thus only may those who have lived together in the past as 
master and slave be enabled to live together in the future as fellow- 
Christians and fellow-countrymen. 

Thus only may they be led to labor together without suspicion, 
grudge, or envy for the highest interests of a nation they both de- 
light to honor, and in whose upbuilding they both have a share. 



COOPERATION. OF WHITE AND NEGRO MINISTERS 

FOR SOCIAL SERVICE 

J. E. Mcculloch, 

Nashville, Tenn., General Secretary of the Southern Sociological Congress 
and the American Interchurch College. 

Several days ago a young man who three years before had been 
in one of my classes walked into my office and told me this story: 
He went to New York and was employed to work on a steamer. 
After going to Rio de Janeiro, his steamer made for European 
ports. When they were off the coast of Portugal, the captain and 
the other officers became drunk and the steamer ran on the rocks. 
My young friend and two other men lowered a lifeboat in great 
haste and rowed away from the steamer, soon to see it sink with 
all on board. The three men, after great difficulty, reached the 
shore. It was a narrow rocky ledge at the bottom of a cliff, so steep 
that it was impossible of ascent. At only one point was there any 
hope of escape from the angry waves that would sweep the coast 
in the first rising tide or gale. There the edge of the cliff projected 
out shelflike higher than a man could reach. Unaided, no man 
could climb up the cliff. Two men formed a ladder of themselves \ 

i 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 189 

and the other climbed up on their shoulders and was able to reach 
the top. The man at the top and the one at the bottom aided the 
second to climb out. Then these two improvised a rope out of 
their clothing and pulled the third to safety. There on the edge 
of the cliff they pledged eternal friendship to one another, for each 
owed his life to the other two — American, Russian and Negro. 
It didn't matter who got out to the top of the cliff first. The 
important fact was that no one was left at the bottom of the cliff 
to perish in the waves of the sea. 

Likewise I come this afternoon to make a plea that the white 
and Negro people of America may so cooperate in saving each 
other that no man, white or black, will be left at the bottom of 
civilization to perish for lack of his brother's aid. Yet it is an 
astonishing fact that there is less cooperation between white and 
colored people in matters of religion than in almost any other way. 
In business life, in professional life, in education and even in poli- 
tics there is more cooperation than in church work. This lack of 
cooperation between white and colored people in religious service 
is due to a lack of sympathy between the ministers of both races. 

There prevails all over this country to-day a sentiment among 
Negro preachers that they do not need the aid of their white 
brethren in the ministry. They prefer to be left alone. Some 
object to having white ministers in their pulpits at all. Others who 
are willing to have white ministers preach for them on rare occa- 
sions, are frank enough to say that the presence of a white preacher 
is seldom if ever an aid to the Negro church. A few of the more 
liberally minded Negro preachers seek the assistance of white 
ministers and frequently invite them to preach to their congre- 
gations. 

On the other hand white preachers have taken an attitude of 
aloofness towards the Negro church. While white ministers are 
always pleased with the compliment when they are invited to preach 
to Negro congregations, they very seldom seek an opportunity to 
preach to Negroes. Judging from the actual efforts put forth, we 
are forced to believe that the salvation of the American Negroes 
rests very lightly on the conscience of the white preachers. They 
pray much for the Negroes of Africa, they raise thousands of 
dollars every year to send white missionaries to Africa. Yet there 
are thousands of white preachers in the South to-day who are 
ministering in no direct way whatsoever to the religious life of the 
Negroes of their community. 

This is a most amazing fact. The church historian a hundred 
years from now will look upon this fact of our self-righteousness 
and aloofness with the same contempt that we have for the caste 
systems of India that make a man of a higher caste willing to let 
a man die rather than become defiled by ministering to one of 
inferior rank. Before we can establish a satisfactory basis of co- 



\ 



190 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

operation in social service it is necessary, therefore, for us to find 
out why there is such a lack of cooperation between white and 
Negro ministers in other respects. To discover the cause of this 
aloofness and to find the remedy we must look for a moment at the 
history of the South. 

Before the war practically every white church in America was 
open to Negroes. It was the rule throughout the South that col- 
ored people attended the white churches. When there was a re- 
vival both white and colored people were present and heard the 
Gospel preached by the same evangelist. When Negroes were con- 
verted in these revivals, they were baptized and received as mem- 
bers of the white churches. Rev. Samuel S. Bishop, of the Epis- 
copal Church, wrote in 1859 that there were recorded 468,000 
colored members of the various churches in the South. In i860 
the Southern Methodist Church alone had 207,000 negro members. 
Practically all of these were ministered to by white pastors. In 
1859 there was scarcely a white preacher in all the South that did 
not minister in some direct way to colored people, either as mem- 
bers of his own church or as members of a mission supported by 
his church. 

Not only were Negroes admitted to the white churches, but white 
missionaries were sent to them just as we support our white mis- 
sionaries in Africa to-day. For example, in i860, every eighth 
preacher of the Southern Methodist Church was a missionary to 
the Negroes. During that one year this denomination supported 
327 missionaries to the Negroes at a cost of $86,859. Likewise, 
the Baptists and Presbyterians were as zealous as the Methodist 
for the religious welfare of the colored people. If these three de- 
nominations were measuring up now to the same standards of 
service to the Negroes that they held in i860, they alone would 
be supporting 2,688 white missionaries to the Negroes at an annual 
expense of $713,663. Instead, these denominations actually have 
fewer missionaries to the Negroes of America to-day than they 
have in Africa. 

What is the cause back of the almost complete withdrawal of this 
cooperative missionary work of the Southern white churches among 
Negroes since 1865? We may rest assured that the cause was 
not the hand of God. After the war every mistake that could 
possibly be made was added to the tragedy that had put every 
white home in the South in mourning for a father or son. Men 
became bitter. Out of bitterness grew hate. Hate produced more 
hatred. The white people withdrew from the Negroes and the 
Negroes felt that they were not welcome in the white churches. 
Then the feeling arose among colored people that if the white 
churches are too good for them then their churches are too good 
for the white people. There was a chasm — a great gulf of separa- 
tion between the white and colored people of the South. That 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 191 

gulf still exists. Consequently, there is very little real and direct 
cooperation between white and Negro ministers of the South. 

Since cooperation has not been established in church work gen- 
erally, why should we have any reason to believe that cooperation 
can now be secured in Social Service? For the simple reason that 
cooperation between white and colored people in Social Service is 
a necessity for the welfare of both races. It may be possible for 
one race to secure eternal salvation apart from the other, but here 
in the South there is absolutely no such thing as social salvation 
for the white people apart from the colored people. What is 
social salvation? It is a state of society which secures to every 
member the opportunity of living a normal, healthy and happy life. 
Where in America is there a community in which every person has 
such an opportunity? We are certainly a long way from Social 
Salvation here in the South. Instead of every person having the 
opportunity of living a normal, healthy and happy life, our social 
order is such that it is almost impossible for anyone to live such a 
life. 

God has a distinct purpose in the creation of every individual 
life and He has implanted in each person forces which, working 
normally, will so develop the individual that it will become the 
complete fulfillment of God's purpose. God has put a force in an 
acorn which if given an opportunity to develop normally will pro- 
duce an oak. God has put another force in the rose bush, which, 
if allowed to grow normally, will invariably produce the beauty of 
the rose. Likewise, God has put within every human life forces 
that are constantly working to produce a healthy, righteous, happy 
character. But instead of our social order being such as to enable 
every person to develop in a normal and healthy way, its influences 
are often like the blighting frost, or the deadly drought or in 
places like the prairie fire that makes life of any kind all but im- 
possible. 

Consequently, the children of God do not grow up to fulfill His 
purpose in the beauty of health, righteousness and holiness. In- 
stead, our civilization permits and fosters influences that damn the 
innocent, that crowd our cemeteries with the graves of children, 
that fill the hearts of men with hate as inevitably as the dread of 
death produces poison in the mouth of the viper. The Church has 
so failed to master the evil influences of Society that thousands of 
children every year are born doomed to disease, to hate, to a life of 
sorrow, and to an early death. Instead of God's children living 
healthy, happy and holy lives, they are scarred and dwarfed and 
diseased ; they find it impossible to be happy or holy because they 
are living in an environment where they are fettered with custom 
and enslaved with fears. All this is because the Church has been 
seeking the salvation of individuals and not the salvation of Society 
as a whole. 



192 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

In view of the present social conditions, we sometimes wonder 
whether there will ever be social salvation on earth. If not, then 
the Church is a failure. Christ certainly meant for us to establish 
social salvation right here on this planet. That is exactly what he 
came here to do. Some ministers seem to think that Christ came 
to earth for the sole purpose of securing personal salvation for a 
few individuals in eternity. Christ could have remained in heaven 
and done that. But what He really meant to do when He came 
to earth was to establish the kingdom of God, the reign of God, 
the rule of God, right here on the planet. Earth. 

He wants us here in the South to establish an ideal social order 
in which each person has the opportunity of living a normal, healthy 
and happy life. We have so completely failed at this task that very 
few persons have such an opportunity — white or colored. The 
dominant social forces at play now are about as likely to produce 
demons as saints. This is not the failure of Christianity but of 
the Church and of the Christian ministry. 

Since the Christian ministry has failed to establish social sal- 
vation, is it not high time for us to inquire into the causes of this 
failure? The policies that have led us to this condition can never 
bring us to victory. 

The chief cause of failure, on the negative side, is the almost 
complete lack of a comprehensive policy on the part of ministers 
to secure social health and righteousness. Their work is conducted 
too much on the plan of each man for himself — each Church for 
itself. They are carrying on a guerilla warfare, when the times 
demand a degree of organization and cooperation that will enable 
the Christian forces to move as one mighty army and that will pro- 
vide a plan of campaign so comprehensive that the whole life of 
every human being will be included. 

In order that I may not be misunderstood, allow me to express 
this thought in the concrete. Take the question of public health. 
That is a social task for the Church. Christ was the Great Phy- 
sician. The Church ought to be the great conserver of health. 
But the task of public health is impossible when it is undertaken by 
piecemeal. It must be comprehensive. Disease, for example, 
knows no color line. It is the height of folly for twenty millions 
of white people to expect to establish a healthy civilization so long 
as they leave out of account ten millions of Negroes living in the 
same territory. A comprehensive plan of public health must in- 
clude every person, young and old, white and colored. 

Yet when in the history of the South did white ministers and 
Negro ministers come together and work out a campaign of public 
health, or even consider a campaign of agitation for such a vital 
cause? There are likewise dozens of other practical social service 
tasks to be performed, such as providing proper housing, super- 
vising amusements and play, protecting the food supply, preventing 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 193 

the ravages of the Hqiior and drug evils, destroying commerciaHzed 
vice, and maintaining law and order throughout the land. These 
and many other great social tasks can be performed only by the 
Christian ministry cooperating and leading the people against the 
foe as one vast army of righteousness. Any social evil in America 
is doomed the very hour the Christian ministry unites in earnest to 
fight it. 

Why then do we not unite our forces? Why can we not co- 
operate? Surely these social evils are destructive enough to arouse 
us by their terrific danger. We know our people cannot be saved 
from these evils unless we do cooperate and fight together. Yet 
we are acting as if we prefer to see our people perish rather than 
to cooperate in saving them. 

Surely, then, our policy of separation, of detachment, of aloof- 
ness, of selfishness in the past is condemned at the bar of common 
sense. Surely the social evils that threaten our very civilization 
itself are sufficient cause to make us lay down our prejudices and 
join hands in common warfare against the foes of humanity. 
United iniquity confronts a divided church and for that reason 
alone it can stand in defiance of the power of the Church. 

I have a friend who is a teacher in a Negro school. Once when 
he was being criticised a little for doing that kind of work, he re- 
marked : " I am willing if necessary to sacrifice my life for my 
work." Brother, I want to ask a harder thing than that of you 
to-day. Are you willing to sacrifice your life for your work? 
Possibly every man of you would rather die than give up his life 
work. Really I don't think that is saying so very much after all 
for a Christian minister. But, Brothers, let me ask something that 
is harder than that for you white men, for you Negro men. Are 
you willing to sacrifice — listen, are you willing to bury your preju- 
dices for your work? That's the test for us. That is Calvary for 
some of us. Are we willing to shoulder our cross and follow our 
Lord to this sacrifice also? 

If you are prepared to make that sacrifice, then I have some 
practical suggestions as to how white and Negro ministers may 
cooperate. 

First, exchange pulpits occasionally. It may be necessary to 
begin here by having the Negro pastors invite the white ministers 
to preach in their pulpits. But later on the white ministers may tact- 
fullv arrange for Negro pastors to preach to their congregations. 
This exchange of pulpits will have a wonderful influence in re- 
storing confidence on both sides. 

Second, let the white and Negro preachers' meetings have an ex- 
change of delegates regularly. Occasionally the white and Negro 
ministers of a city should meet together in order to get acquainted, 
to study each others' problems and to plan together for carrying 
out cooperative and comprehensive undertakings for social service. 



194 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

Third, the most effective method of cooperative work that I can 
suggest may strike some of you as rather radical. But after making 
a study of this question for several years, I have come to the de- 
liberate conclusion that the best, the simplest and most effective 
way by which we can cooperate is for the white ministers to help 
train Negro Christian workers, both men and women. This train- 
ing work can be done to some extent in the local communities by 
white preachers or teachers helping to train Negro Sunday school 
teachers and other workers. Let the preachers' meetings themselves 
be turned into training schools for Social Service. 

But the most effective way of all is for the white churches of the 
South to establish a few schools in which Negro Christian workers 
can be given a thorough course of training in Church Cooperation 
and Social Service. Then as these Negro graduates are sent out 
from these schools, they should he supported by Southern white 
churches as missionaries to Negroes in the communities in which 
the white churches are located. I have the utmost confidence in 
this plan. I have so much confidence in it that we have established 
the Nashville Institute for Negro Christian Workers with the defi- 
nite objective for the next ten years " of training one thousand 
Negro men and women and having them supported by Southern 
white churches as missionaries to Negroes in America and Africa." 
These trained workers will be like so many bridges across the chasm 
of separation that now makes cooperation extremely difficult. 



REMARKS TO THE EDITORS 

G. B. WINTON, 

Nashville, Tenn., Former Editor of the Missionary Voice, Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South. 

In the modern world the editor is the true vox populi. If he 
does not give voice to the thoughts, the will, the aspirations of his 
people, he is a failure. Not that he should be a mere echo ; far from 
it. He must be a voice, ringing and strong; a voice that will 
produce echoes. 

His work is creative. Students of psychology are of the opinion 
that thought is never perfected without speech. Our conceptions 
must have word-forms or they remain incomplete, half-formed, 
chaotic. What is thus true of the thought process of the individual 
is even more true as regards the community. There may be a 
stirring of longings and desire, a movement of sentiment, of hatred 
of wrong and love of right, that everybody is aware of. It whispers 
and trembles everywhere. It makes nerves tense and pulses quick. 
It runs like a thrill from man to man. To pretend that it does not 
exist would be absurd ; to define and locate it, impossible. 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 195 

That is the editor's opportunity. Here is his calHng. It is his 
to give form and reality to these inarticulate upheavals of purpose 
and opinion. In chemistry there are certain combinations of ele- 
ments that require but a touch of light, a flash of electricity or a 
dash of acid to precipitate them into a blaze, a transformation from 
gas to liquid or a rending explosion. These crucial moments of 
community sentiment are like that. Often ten lines of editorial in 
a periodical that everybody reads will be like the electric spark to 
the powder in the rock quarry. The strength of every man will be 
added to that of every other man in a great and sudden thrust, and 
the solid rock will give way. 

Every editorial desk ought, therefore, to be labeled like certain 
box cars that one sees in the railway yards : " Explosives : Handle 
wath care ! " A man who does not recognize the responsibility of 
this work is not fit to be an editor. Editors have made peace and 
they have made war. Every day they are making trouble and 
preventing trouble. It is most important that they should be men 
of peace ; that as the Scripture says, they should " seek peace and 
pursue it." In view of his relation to society no editor can claim 
that his words are simply the utterance of his own opinion. He 
may mean that they shall be only that, but it is impossible. It is 
as if a man with a voice as loud as a steam whistle should mix in a 
crowd, and when he bellows so loudly that he can be heard ten 
blocks away, drowning out everybody else and making them hush 
and stare, he should say : " Why don't you go on with your con- 
versation ? I am only giving a private expression of my opinion to 
my friend here ! " In Africa, Bishop Lambuth tells us, there is a 
special class of men, selected for their strong voices, who are sent 
out by the chiefs when a new law or order is passed, and they go 
from village to village, and with the help of a sort of musical drum, 
bawl out to the people the orders of the chief. That is like the 
function of our newspapers. They are not, it is true, sent out to 
give the orders of a chief — except when a political boss happens 
to get hold of an editor or buy up a paper. But they go forth as 
the voice of the community. Like the Psalmist's tribute to day and 
night, " their line is gone out through all the earth and their circuit 
to the end of it." 

The editor is not only responsible for what he says himself, but 
for what he lets other people say — even the advertisers. If 
there is one duty which more than another you owe to your readers, 
it is to stop advertisers from lying through the columns of your 
papers. The fact that they pay you or your publisher for the 
privilege does not help matters. It really makes them worse. 
"But how am I to know," you will say, "when a man is lying?" 
That is not hard. Most any of us who have brains enough to be 
put in charge of a paper can run down the columns of any journal 
we may pick up and check oflf the advertisements that are lies. 



196 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

They are there to deceive our people, to rob them of money, and 
often to damage them in health. They ought not to be toler- 
ated. 

Then there is the matter of headlines. Many people are so hur- 
ried that they do not stop to read anything but the headings. Now, 
it is the editor's business to determine what shall be " played up " 
in his paper, and how it shall be done. An article may be helped 
by giving it a good position. A matter that the people are inter- 
ested in may be so mentioned in the headlines as to give an abso- 
lute bias to the minds of the readers, in whatever direction the 
editor may desire. Take, for example, this matter of war with 
Mexico. So far we have not had any war with Mexico. I think 
we are not going to have. Yet, the headlines in many papers seem 
to indicate that the editors are doing all they can to bring on a 
war. Strange to say, when one turns over to the editorial page he 
finds often a temperate and sensible editorial opposing the very 
things that are advocated by the headlines on the front page ! I 
have even seen the flaring titles contradicted in the body of the 
piece itself. A paper will come out with a black-faced heading 
across the whole page, in box-car type : " Four Americans Exe- 
cuted in Mexico." Reading the dispatches below, it transpires 
that the headline is based on a rumor. By the next day the rumor 
is denied flatly or dies of inanition. A paper that does such a 
thing ought to make humble apology to its readers, promise never 
to do so again, and — keep the promise. 

The editor also determines what contributed articles shall be 
printed 'and what not. More of the paper's space is taken up with 
this than with any other class of matter. If it is a daily, the 
columns are filled with the " news stories " of the reporters ; if it 
is a weekly or monthly, with special contributions and selections. 
Here is another field of responsibility. It is not necessary that 
the editor should exclude all that fails to square with his own opin- 
ions. A paper should be a forum, and any good editor will welcome 
criticism and opposition. But he will subject all matter sent to 
him to judgment not in the light merely of its agreement or dis- 
agreement with his personal views, but with reference to those same 
standards of responsibility which govern his own writings. He 
will a.sk: "How is this likely to afifect the community? Will it 
do good or harm ? Does it express views that the community ought 
to have? " 

Now, the use of this word " ought " leads me to the main point 
of my exhortation. No man should be an editor who is not desirous 
of helping people to think what they ought to think, and thus to 
do what they ought to do. Just as he cannot, as we have seen, rid 
himself of the responsibility of leadership, so neither can he shake 
off the moral obligation of that leadership. Since, as he voices the 
sentiments of his people, he helps to create and to form those senti- 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 197 

ments, it is clearly his duty to direct the community's sentiments 
and opinions toward the common good of all. 

Ours is a time of peace. We know now that war is destructive. 
It does not build up ; it tears down. It destroys human life, embit- 
ters human relations, annihilates property, disorganizes society. 
The churches are opposing war^ the labor unions are opposing war, 
the capitalists, boards of trade and commercial clubs are opposing 
war. But war is sensational ; it is exciting ; it furnishes " copy " 
for the newspapers. A battle where a thousand men are killed 
or wounded is " news." Ten thousand men going about their daily 
work, loving one another, building homes, supporting their families, 
buying and selling and laboring, do not furnish as much matter for 
the morning paper as two prize fighters. 

Here is a temptation almost as insidious for the newspaper man 
as the lying advertisement, and for the same reason — there is 
money in it. But the conscientious editor will stop his ears and 
close his eyes. We are the apostles, not of destruction, but of build- 
ing up. In particular those editors who deal with the relations of 
two races, so bound together that they cannot be separated, so dif- 
ferentiated that they cannot unite, need to be on their guard at 
this point. In looking for " news " to print you may easily make 
trouble. Because a poor colored boy goes crazy with the cocaine 
that was sold him by some conscienceless white druggist, shoots 
up a village and is then hung by a mob, do you need to put big 
capitals on the front page and a furious editorial on page 4 about 
a " race war " ? It is not a race war at all. The white people in 
that village love their black friends after it is all over just as well 
as they did before. And the black people know that the druggist 
and the little disreputable mob are not " representatives of the best 
citizens," as the papers so often state. In nearly all such troubles 
we white folks are more to blame than you, but while that is true 
— to our shame — you do not help to remedy it if you stir up all 
black folks against all white folks. The purpose of meetings like 
this is to get the really better class of both whites and blacks to 
standing together. You may " roast " the mob all you please, and 
the illicit seller of drugs, but don't lump a lot of innocent people in 
with them. And don't forget to warn your own people that bad 
white folks do not justify bad Negroes. Reprove and restrain the 
evil among your own people, and stay on good terms with us and 
help us do the same among our folks. 

May I suggest, in closing, two or three things of a practical kind? 

1. Why not get the leading white lawyers, doctors and preachers 
in your town to write you an occasional article, each one along his 
own line, especially for the benefit of the colored people? I be- 
lieve they would do it if you asked them. Try it. 

2. Print a short sermon every week. Get the leading ministers 
of both races to furnish you an outline on Monday of what they 



198 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

said the day before. Your people like sermons, and the preachers 
in other places would read these sermons and they would help them 
— teach them how to explain a text and to say practical things, in- 
stead of just ranting and yelling like some of them do. It is most 
important, by the way, that editors and preachers should keep in 
touch with each other. 

3. When you discuss racial problems, the relations between whites 
and blacks, better treatment of Negro laborers and tenants, and 
other such questions, send a marked copy of your paper to the 
leading white citizens of your community. They will be interested 
in what you are saying to your people on these subjects, and you 
ought not to say anything that you are not willing for the white 
people to see. 

4. It will be well if you will have a column every week in which 
the school teachers, especially those in country schools, may dis- 
cuss their work and methods, exchange ideas, and keep in touch 
with each other. It will help them and make your paper popular. 
In some cities school teachers are using the newspapers as part of 
the regular study of their pupils. 

5. Finally I suggest, be careful of your manner of writing. Use 
good grammar and proper words. Many of your people have a 
poor chance nowadays to acquire a vocabulary. Once they lived 
in touch with white people; now many of them do not. They 
have few books. Let your language always be of a kind that will 
teach them and help them. 



1 
ll 



REPORTS OF COMMISSIONS 

Missionary Service in Africa 

Students and the Ministry 

Student Young Men's Christian Associations 

Student Young Women's Christian Associations 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON THE ENLISTMENT 
OF EDUCATED NEGROES FOR WORK IN AFRICA 

THE COMMISSION 

President Frank K. Sanders, Ph.D., Chairman ; Professor 
Harlan P. Beach, D.D. ; Right Reverend Theodore T. 
Bratton, D.D. ; Reverend S. H. Chester, D.D. ; Reverend 
James H. Franklin, D.D. ; Reverend L. G. Jordan, D.D. ; 
Bishop W. R. Lambuth, D.D. ; Major Robert R. Moton ; 
Bishop Isaiah B. Scott, D.D. 

the task of the christian church in AFRICA 

Africa, the scene of many early triumphs of Christianity, and 
the home of some of its greatest leaders, is to-day the continent of 
emergency, a field of surpassing opportunity for Christian missions. 
Her eleven million square miles contain by far the greatest section 
of the earth's unutilized territory. Its coveted resources and multi- 
plying means of transportation are opening the continent widely to 
itself and to the outer v^^orld. The pressure of peoples for its pos- 
session has given rise to critical problems affecting the lives and 
fortunes of its teeming millions, but incapable of solution except 
through the religion of Jesus Christ. 

The Africa of to-day, the gift of Livingstone to this century, 
is largely occupied by primitive peoples, whose history, written 
and unwritten, emphasizes not only their virility, endurance, loyalty, 
and their power of rapid and continuous advancement under proper 
conditions, but likewise their religious promise. Their very super- 
stitions mark them out as passionately religious. The remarkable, 
well-nigh Pentecostal, triumphs of the Gospel in Uganda, in Nyasa- 
land, among the Basuto people, along the Congo, and in Kamerun, 
give abundant reason for the conviction that the Christianization of 
the negro races of Africa will again give definite enrichment and 
strengthening to the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Two great dangers threaten the achievement of this hope, (i) 
The southward and rapid extension of Mohammedanism imperils 
the family, social and religious development of pagan Africa, with 
eighty-three millions of black pagan inhabitants. It constitutes to- 
day the greatest spiritual peril confronting the negro races. 
(2) Again, while European control has largely put an end to the 
desolating inter-tribal and inter-social warfare of the past centuries, 
and will enable the prolific peoples of Africa to create rapidly a 
vast negro population within this century, it is so often marked by 
covetousness and brute power instead of friendliness, and by nar- 

201 



202 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

row-mindedness and racial jealousy instead of statesmanship, that 
unless Christian principles speedily sway the minds of African and 
European alike, the future seems ominous. Only obedience to the 
Prince of Peace can prevent an Armageddon. 

The task of Africa's redemption attracts by its very complexity 
and magnitude. It involves the upbuilding of great populations 
with definite lines of cleavage, some approximating savagery, others 
well advanced in their own native forms of social development ; it 
calls for the mastery of many languages, diverse in character ; it 
calls for the wise adjustment of a tribally governed race to the 
institutions and ideas which associate themselves with enlightened 
Christianity ; it demands much pioneering effort and much patient 
education ; it involves dealing with the delicate and difficult problems 
of race relationship. No field of missionary activity to-day makes 
greater demands upon the capacity, resourcefulness, patience, zeal 
and faith of those whose lives are consecrated to its evangelization. 
No field presents a louder challenge to the Christian Church. 

THE AMERICAN NEGRO's RELATION TO THIS TASK 

It is evident to the thoughtful observer that the American negro 
stands related in some providential way to this missionary task. 
He is not solely responsible, but his share is definite and important. 
While three centuries of life in America have lifted his average 
attainment far above that of his African contemporaries, he retains 
his racial consciousness and can interpret more truly than others 
the racial needs of those who are still in a primitive stage of devel- 
opment. Of the road the African peoples travel as a race, the 
American negro has had experience. He embodies in the repre- 
sentative young men and women of his people here the goal after 
which they are to strive. His demonstrated capacity for achieve- 
ment will afford them encouragement to begin their own upward 
struggle from barbarism to Christian civilization. 

The attainments of the American negro in all that makes for a 
stable civilization, urge him, in proportion to his resources and his 
opportunity, to face this sacrificial task. He has accumulated mil- 
lions of property; has developed educational institutions of every 
type; has access for the training of exceptional men and women to 
many of the institutions of the first rank in the United States ; has 
thoroughly organized his own social and religious institutions ; and 
is thus prepared to-day to discover the leaders needed for the tasks 
which face the Negro race, to give such leaders the training essen- 
tial to their efficiency, and to assure them ample support in their 
heroic service. 

THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE OBLIGATION IS BEING MET 

From the days of Lott Carey, the Virginia slave who bought his 
freedom, nearly a century ago, in order to plant the seed of the 






THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 203 

Gospel in Liberia, down to our time, there have not been wanting 
evidences of the interest of the American negro in his African 
brother, and of his readiness to respond to a true missionary appeal. 
There are not very many of them at work to-day in Africa for a 
variety of reasons. Of the nineteen denominational Boards of the 
white churches of North America which are doing work in Africa 
to-day, some have been able to use negro missionaries from this 
country in past years, but are prevented by political or financial 
and, not infrequently by personal reasons from using them at 
present. Of these Boards, according to the best statistics avail- 
able through a single inquiry, five employ twenty-three negroes, who 
are, in a true sense, missionaries from the United States. Three 
of these serve under the Presbyterian Church in the United States 
(Southern) ; two are under the American Baptist Foreign Mission- 
ary Society ; two under the Christian Women's Board of Missions ; 
fifteen under the Methodist Episcopal Church ; and one under the 
Protestant Episcopal Church. The Congregational Board has made 
distinct use of five such missionaries from the United States in the 
past, but is debarred to-day by local law from their use in any but one 
of its three missions in Africa. The Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, has under consideration a plan of cooperation with the 
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. They have made a joint 
survey of an African field, but have not, as yet, worked out a plan 
of procedure. Under existing circumstances, it seems improbable 
that there will be any large demand for negro missionaries by the 
white denominations for some time to come. It is only fair to add, 
however, that Bishop Scott, one of the bishops in charge of the 
work of the Methodist Episcopal Church in West Africa, declares 
that he could make effective use of a hundred such missionaries in 
Liberia alone, if he could secure the money for their support. 

Doctor Noble, an exceptionally gifted investigator, writing in 
1899, declared that six Baptist Societies and five Methodist So- 
cieties among the negroes of North America were engaged in 
African missions. Your Commission has been able to discover 
only four missionary societies managed solely by the negro churches. 
Three are denominational: the National Baptist Convention re- 
porting thirty-three missionaries, the African Methodist Episcopal 
reporting sixty-eight, and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion 
reporting thirty-two. Besides these, there is the Lott Carey Bap- 
tist Foreign Missionary Convention, which represents the foreign 
missionary interests of some of the Baptist churches of the Atlantic 
States from North Carolina to New England. It reports ten mis- 
sionaries in two fields, — South Africa and Liberia. So far as re- 
ported, the number of missionaries sustained in Africa to-day by 
the negro churches of the United States is approximately one 
hundred and fifty. These statistics cannot be regarded as final, but 
they indicate approximately the conditions as they are to-day. 



! 



204 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 



THE AGENTS REQUIRED 

It is painfully evident to the candid investigator that a very large 
proportion of these missionaries are poorly prepared for the great 
task that lies before the race. They have not made progress as 
they should in dealing with the problems of heathenism. They 
have been selected because of consecration, rather than by reason 
of preeminent ability or adequate preparation. One negro secre- 
tary states that his Board has not been able in eighteen years to 
secure one single college bred man or woman for service ; another 
states that his Board requires of their missionaries " training to the 
extent of a full grammar course and the Holy Bible." 

Our survey of the needs of the unevangelized negro races has 
revealed the relative impotency of such representatives of the 
negro churches to do the work required. Their standards are those 
of the negro preacher in the country church to-day. Their vision 
of the task before them is inadequate ; they cannot command the 
high respect of the leaders of their own race in Africa and have 
little or no influence with the whites ; they are not resolute in brav- 
ing the hardships of missionary pioneering. That all this is due, 
in a very small degree, to their color or to their white environment, 
and mainly to their lack of ability, is evidenced by the noteworthy 
service rendered by such truly representative men as Dr. W. H. 
Sheppard, in Luebo ; Bishop Isaiah B. Scott, in Liberia ; Rev. Ben- 
jamin F. Ousley, in East Africa; Bishop John B. Small, on the Gold 
Coast ; Bishop J. Albert Johnston, in Cape Colony ; Bishop Samuel 
D. Ferguson, at Cape Palmas, and Professor John W. Gilbert in 
the work of mission pioneering. 

The task in Africa, or wherever negro races are found, demands 
missionaries of high qualifications. It is a task of leadership and 
training. It was a fine saying of Dr. Stewart, of Lovedale, that 
the crying need of Africa is for " moral engineers," capable of 
laying broad and lasting foundations for the spiritual and in- 
tellectual upgrowth of these peoples. Their task is to " bring 
up a race all the way from primitive savagery to sane Christian- 

ity. 

Such an enterprise calls for those who are capable of more than 
evangelization. This task, in all its greatness, must really be the 
work of the native church itself, through evangelists trained on the 
field. The appeal of Africa to the churches of America is for 
leaders who can create and continue the conditions which will de- 
velop an aggressive native church. Such men and women must 
have a sturdy physique, a faculty for practical administration, and 
educational and spiritual attainments of a high and exceptional 
order. The diversified work of an African missionary station will 
call for varied kinds of skill and capacity, but demands invariably 
for best results the very best representatives of our American 



: 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 205 

character, culture and training. It is likewise desirable, if not im- 
perative, that those who are chosen for these posts of strong leader- 
ship, shall have demonstrated at home their fitness for constructive 
service in the foreign field. The practice of the Foreign Depart- 
ments of the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Asso- 
ciations is in point. The more than two hundred secretaries on the 
field to-day in positions of strategic influence, have almost without 
exception been drawn from the ranks of those who have proven 
their capacity by exceptional Association service in this country. 
For such proven leaders Africa is waiting. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LARGER INTEREST 

The task of discovering these leaders is one which challenges the 
American negro. It will be a process of sifting and selection in 
which each institution contributing to the religious development of 
the race will share. It means a larger emphasis by every pastor 
upon the missionary obligation of his people, a wider dissemination 
of sane and stirring missionary information through the religious 
press and by missionary secretaries, the more thorough study of the 
mission enterprise of to-day by the young men and women of our 
educational institutions, the cultivation of Sunday School and Young 
People's Societies, the encouragement of those young men and young 
women who solemnly determine to consecrate their lives to the 
promotion of the Kingdom of God. Under such influences there 
will emerge and become available the unselfish, earnest, capable, 
commanding personalities who are needed for the work of saving 
Africa. 

THE WORK ON THE FIELD 

There are four lines of missionary usefulness which may be 
emphasized as calling for well qualified recruits. 

( 1 ) The study and relief of disease with the uplifting of hygienic 
and sanitary ideals. Africa offers a wide open field for medical 
mission work. There can never be too many good hospitals or 
dispensaries. 

(2) The provision of suitable educational institutions, which will 
open the crude, superstitious mind of the African to a true con- 
ception of God's world, and of his place in it, and his soul to the 
ethical and regenerative messages of His word. The instruction 
given will not overlook the Christian reconstruction of home life, 
the scientific utilization of the land, the mastery of useful trades 
and crafts. Many authorities concur in thinking that industrial 
training must be given much prominence in Africa, both because 
labor is an essential element in developing dependable character 
and because the African theory that work is for women only must 
be given its death blow. The task of furnishing these means of 
broadening the life of tribes and individuals opens the way for 



2o6 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

much possible service to our best negro graduates. The planting of 
industrial schools, such as Hampton and Tuskegee, of adequately 
supervised common school systems, of a few well equipped insti- 
tutions of higher learning, such as our best negro denominational 
colleges, will be an inviting and important task for educators. 

(3) The Christian socialisation of the family, the village and the 
tribe. The present status of the native African under direct Euro- 
pean rule is often unfortunate, because there is little in common 
between ruler and subject. The Christian missionary is quite in- 
variably the friend, the counselor and the mediator of the black 
man. In his great change from tribal communism to individualism, 
the native African needs sympathetic guidance, which the mission- 
ary rejoices to give. 

(4) The supremely important zvork of evangelization. The most 
glorious manifestation of personal or tribal life will be in a sal- 
vation through the Living Christ who alone delivers from fear, 
from impurity, from every form of sin, and leads one into a holy, 
joyous life, full of faith and love and hope. This will be the 
panacea for Africa's ills, and the missionary who administers it 
must surely be the truest exemplification of its inspiring power. 

DIFFICULTIES AND THEIR SOLUTIONS 

The redemption of Africa is beset with difficulties which must 
be frankly faced. They have not prevented missionary progress 
in past years, and will probably lessen in importance as time goes 
on. Yet we may wisely face the situation as it is to-day. 

The problems of transportation and inter-communication, once 
so great, and the dangers to health, even now very real, are rapidly 
yielding to modern enterprise. The narrow and sinuous African 
trail is giving way to the straight highways of Uganda, Rhodesia 
and Kamerun. Schools of tropical medicine, by discovering the 
causes of diseases which in the past baffled the skill of physicians, 
have greatly reduced the mortality of foreign-born residents in 
Africa. Under proper conditions, a missionary career in the Dark 
Continent may be a long one. 

The attitude of some of the governing powers in Africa prevents 
at present the use of the American negro in missionary service in 
the greater part of South and East Africa and restricts his free- 
dom elsewhere. The restrictive laws of South Africa have been 
due in considerable measure to the so-called Ethiopian Movement. 
In a country where the black population outnumbers the whites five- 
fold, this Movement and its American leadership was held to be 
dangerous with the result of severe legislative proscription against 
negroes from our country. Apparently, however, the situation 
to-day is less strained and wiser policies are restoring missionary 
and governmental confidence. 

The readiness with which new missionary movements, especially 






THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 207 

in South Africa, liave crowded into fields already occupied by re- 
sponsible Mission Boards and shown a willingness to increase their 
own membership by admitting members won from heathenism by 
the missionaries of these older organizations has been a real hin- 
drance to missionary efficiency and to Christian statesmanship. No 
Society should undertake work in Africa which is not willing to 
show a spirit of tolerance and brotherly cooperation toward Socie- 
ties already at work. Under the guidance of the Cooperative Com- 
mittees which, under the auspices of the Continuation Committee 
of the Edinborough Conference, are federating the Christian forces 
at work in Africa, new fields may readily be found in which no 
Society is at work and the population is practically without the 
Gospel. 

For various reasons, as we have already noted, the great mission- 
ary Boards of the white churches have made infrequent use of 
negro missionaries. They have found in actual practice that there 
is little difference in point of efficiency between the first-rate mis- 
sionaries of either color, and no marked advantage of the black 
man over his white brother in point of health. Some of these 
Societies claim that the negro missionary working with his white 
brethren has less influence over the African than his white associ- 
ates. All agree that there is no great economy in the use of the 
American negro as a missionary, and great wastefulness in the 
use of the negro of small ability. 

How these problems will best be solved is still an open question. 
The great majority of negro missionaries will, in the future as 
in the past, be sent out by Societies directed and supported by the 
negro churches. As time goes on, other white Societies may follow 
the example of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which has set 
apart its mission to Liberia to be developed, for the most part, by 
negro missionaries. Some of them are ready to welcome the com- 
plete equipment of one or more stations on a mission field. The 
solution of this question will depend more upon the quality of the 
negro missionaries who offer, than upon their color. One well 
known missionary secretary declares that only one fully qualified 
negro has applied to his Board for appointment in a long series of 
years, and that in this case the wife was unfit. If the ablest young 
men and women of our negro churches dedicate themselves to mis- 
sionary service, meeting every test which the Societies apply to 
white candidates, the way will probably be found to place them on 
the field. 

Industrial complications, especially in the sub-continent, offer 
serious obstacles to mission progress. The trades-unionism of 
South Africa aims to shut out the negro from industrial advance; 
the white settler covets his land and seeks to force him to furnish 
the labor needed on the farms and in the mines. These are but a 
few of the problems which call for Christian solution. It is well 






208 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

that such noble men as Bridgman, Hertslet, Willoughby, Jacotet 
and Henderson are standing there in Africa as daysmen in this 
strife of color and conflicting interests. 

The white man's vices have been Africa's scourge. The great 
mining centers are distributing agencies for new vices and their 
resultant diseases. Durban, Kimberley, Johannesburg are storm 
centers, with Katanga rapidly developing into one, where missions 
are concentrating their strongest men in the successful attempt to 
win to purity and Christian aggressiveness thousands, who yearly 
return to their widely scattered kraals as unpaid agents and exem- 
plars of the Christian propaganda. 

THE GOAL 

The task of Africa's redemption is stupendous. It challenges the 
Christian world to-day. Will not the American negro churches 
assume their full share in its achievement? Their task at home is 
vast, and their resources far from adequate. Efficiency will demand 
much reorganization, and a new spirit of cooperation. It will call 
for a fresh emphasis on missionary education, a new sense of re- 
sponsibility, a re-dedication of means and of the best young life. 
It will necessitate a new conception and practice of prayer. It will 
furnish a supreme test of the sanity of judgment, executive effi- 
ciency, and financial ability of the race. Missionary administration 
of the first order calls into play the finest qualities of every race 
and puts it to the proof. 1 

Three great considerations will nerve the negro of America to 
this sacrificial task. 

(i) World-wide redemption was the goal of our Lord. Nine- -^ 

teen centuries have passed and the work is still unfinished. Eighty 
million souls are dumbly waiting for a knowledge of His life and 
law of love. Does not this missionary call, with its creative eternal 
tasks, fill the souls of some of us with a new sense of opportunity 
and the investment of life, and draw us to the high resolve that if 
God will open the way we, whom He has given the power of 
leadership, will consecrate our energies to the completion of His 
unfinished work? 

(2) Aside from the few brave, choice men and women who may 
be privileged to hear this call and to obey it, there is an appeal in 
African evangelization to the negro churches of America. They 
need to a far greater degree the world-wide vision which will trans- 
figure their petty localism into an enthusiastic love for their blood 
brothers across the sea and will develop new resources and broader 
policies. 

(3) Then will arise a stronger and finer racial patriotism. In 
pagan Africa are eight times as many negroes as are found in Amer- 
ica. At this period of transition the black race is plastic. Many 
white men are in that continent to exploit the African or to make 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 209 

him into a dark skinned Englishman, Frenchman, German or Bel- 
gian. Those social traits which should be a distinctive contribution 
to the new brotherhood of nations are in real danger of obliteration 
or transformation. Black men of adequate training and experience 
can best understand these qualities and preserve them to the world. 
Many sections of Africa will remain for generations Negro-land. 
In those regions the race may establish itself in a new and en- 
lightened status. It will be the privilege of American negroes to 
ffive such wise and sane direction to this new nationalism and to 
make it so loyal to the principles of Christian brotherhood, that the 
Africa of to-morrow will become not only a distinctive, but a 
helpful addition to the ever widening Kingdom of God. 

In view of ah these considerations, your Commission would re- 
port the following conclusions: 

(i) The continent of Africa presents to the negro churches of 
America an irresistible call for their help. 

(2) It calls, however, for the choicest sons and daughters of 
the negro race. The task is preeminently a task of leadership, 
which demands careful training with constant emphasis upon the 
qualities which have been already described. The educated young 
men and women of our colleges and schools are the ones on whom 
the task will devolve. 

(3) But this call is not to the missionary candidate alone. It is 
a call to the entire membership of the negro churches of all denomi- 
nations to enter with Christ into the pain and anguish necessary to 
redeem the peoples of Africa. It is their privilege and duty to make 
effective in largest measure the offering of lives for service in Africa 
on the part of young men and women of the negro race. 



RESOLUTIONS OF THE CONFERENCE ON SECURING 
STRONG AND ABLE STUDENTS FOR THE MINISTRY 

C. H. TOBIAS, 
D. D. JONES, 

Secretaries in the Colored Men's Department International Com- 
mittee Young Men's Christian Associations. 

Gathered at Atlanta for the first Negro Student Convention, 
representing in its membership the negro educational institutions 
in the South, and many of the leaders and friends of the race, we 
submit the following findings : 

I. The outstanding need of our people to-day is a large increase 
in the number of strong, spiritually minded, well educated minis- 
ters who will live among their people and mold their changing life. 
Such men alone can lead in this age of transition. They alone can 



210 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

impress the men and women of achievement and the educated young 
people. They alone can m.inister to the whole social and religious 
life of the negro race. 

2. Of such leaders, there are far too few to-day in the pulpit or 
in training for it. The blame for this must distribute itself widely 
to home, church, school, parish and society alike. The churches 
have been satisfied with untrained leadership and have sometimes 
looked with suspicion upon well qualified ministers. Ministerial 
opportunities and working conditions have been such that the ablest 
men have been repelled by them rather than attracted. Men with 
the quahties of leadership have chosen business or professional 
pursuits. We call upon the young men of ability to give themselves 
heroically and with sacrifice to the supreme opportunity of the 
ministry. 

3. The way to alter the existing situation is by a larger emphasis 
on the proper place of the Church in mJnistering to the spiritual, 
intellectual and social needs of the people. This is surely a task 
which will appeal to our young men of largest capacity, broadest 
vision and most heroic conceptions of duty. When the home, the 
Church and the school lay due stress upon the qualifications of the 
leaders they desire, and lay hold of promising men, one by one, 
placing before them this call, we believe that our young men will 
respond. But the Church as a whole, must have a deep sense of 
need for the right kind of ministers ; and the young men who look 
forward to business, professional and farming life must have high 
ideals of the type of men required for the leadership of the Church, 
and of their adequate preparation for this high calling. They as the 
future lay-leaders of the Church must likewise have enlarged con- 
ceptions of the demands on the membership necessary for the ade- 
quate support for the right kind of ministers. 

4. There is much to be done by way of adequately meeting these 
needs of to-day. For example, our student Young Men's Christian 
Associations in the schools and colleges represented here should 
enlarge greatly their efforts to provide for the thorough-going and 
comprehensive presentation of the call to the strongest men to en- 
ter the ministry. In our student conferences, ample provision 
should be made for this theme in the programmes. The best rep- 
resentatives of the Christian ministry should be invited to address 
the students in colleges and conferences. Example goes farther 
than precept. The faculties in our institutions are urged to em- 
phasize, as in the past, the preeminent importance of this work. 
Ministers in their churches are urged to preach to their people on 
this theme and to urge that sons be consecrated to the work. 

Our educational institutions need better equipment and a wise 
standardization. They need to keep more definitely in mind the 
work which their graduates will have to do. Every Theological 
Seminary may well conduct a social clinic, sending its men out to 



Vi 



< I. 
■\ I 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 211 

investigate and deal with existing conditions. The greatest pains 
must be taken to help these future leaders of the race to master 
the fundamentals which will help their people, — community im- 
provement, better homes, better ideals of preaching and a more 
inspiring conception of the power of Christianity for the regenera- 
tion of the individual and society. 

5. Attention is also called to the fact that it is possible to increase 
the efficiency of a large number of the men who are now serving 
as pastors of churches, whose inadequate preparation ought to be 
supplemented in every way possible. This will be accomplished 
through ministerial conferences, through the cooperation of older and 
more experienced ministers of both races, through the circulation 
of helpful literature and through some plan of supervision to be 
worked out in different denominations in harmony with their own 
denominational polity. We would especially emphasize the neces- 
sity of making provision for the residence of pastors in the com- 
munities where their parishes are located, if their leadership is to 
become most effective. 

6. We would call upon the members of this Conference and, 
through them, on the Christian people of all parts of the country and 
of all denominations, to practice the method ordained by our Lord, 
who when he looked upon the fields and saw their needs, said, 
" Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He thrust forth laborers into 
His harvest." All can begin at once, even the humblest member of 
this Convention, to enter upon this divinely appointed method of 
securing the workers needed for the great task we face. This 
method has never been adequately tested. Not only are the mem- 
bers of our Church guilty of neglect, but even the leaders, those 
of us who have recognized the Great Call, have failed to test the 
principle embodied in our Lord's command. 



PRESENT PHASES OF COOPERATIVE WORK — THE 
YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 

C. H. TOBIAS, 

Augusta, Ga., Traveling Secretary in the Colored Men's Department In- 
ternational Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association. 

Three years ago, when the Central Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation of a certain Southern city was about to launch a campaign 
for a new building, a meeting of the board of directors was called 
to arrange for the campaign. There was no hitch in the proceed- 
ings of the meeting until one of the members suggested that the 
work for colored men should receive some consideration. A dis- 
cussion of some length followed and for a while it seemed that 
the proposition would not get the approval of the board. Finally, 



212 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

the chairman, a splendid young Harvard man and prominent mem- 
ber of the bar, arose and ended the discussion with this single sen- 
tence : " Gentlemen, we are going to include in our appeal $25,000 
for the colored men's branch, because Jesus Christ wants it done ! " 

Interracial cooperation in Young Men's Christian Association 
Work has made progress where men of both races have sought to 
know the will of God on questions of relationships and have had 
the courage to do what His will revealed to them. 

The purpose of this paper is to show concretely how successful 
cooperative work is being carried on. It may be well, however, in 
the beginning to devote a brief word to the factors that have led 
up to this work. 

The first Young Men's Christian Association for colored men was 
organized in Washington in 1853. It is interesting to note that 
William Chauncey Langdon, the founder of the International Con- 
vention, who was then local secretary in Washington, was in close 
touch with the colored men who formed this first association, which 
was formed two years after the first one was organized on this 
continent, and eleven years after the parent association was organ- 
ized in London. Anthony Bowen, a free Negro, was president of 
the colored association. He and Langdon worked in the same 
government department and were evidently warm friends. One 
mission Sunday school which was established by the white asso- 
ciation grew into a church and is to-day one of the influential col- 
ored churches of Washington. 

When the International Convention met in Toronto in 1876, Dr. 
Stuart Robinson, a Presbyterian minister, of Louisville, Ky., was 
so eloquent in his presentation of the Negro's claims that Sir George 
Williams, the founder of the Young Men's Christian Association, 
who was present, contributed one hundred ($100) dollars in the 
collection that followed the appeal. This is the only contribution 
that Mr. Williams is known to have made to an American associa- 
tion. 

The first employed agent of the International Committee to in- 
vestigate conditions among colored men with a view to establishing 
association work was General George D. Johnston of Alabama. 
He laid the foundation of our work in the far South by organizing 
Bible Classes and holding Gospel Meetings for colored men in the 
different cities. 

The first salaried colored secretary of a local association was 
William A. Hunton, who was made secretary of the Norfolk, Va., 
Association in 1888. Mr. Hunton and his colored board of di- 
rectors were generously assisted in setting up the work by an 
advisory board of white men. That association to-day, although 
it is not a branch of the Central Association of Norfolk, has a 
board of directors composed of white and colored men. 

]\Iany other such instances could be mentioned but these are 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 213 

enough to show how association work among colored men from 
the very beginning has been characterized by cooperative effort. 

Up to seven years ago there were no modern buildings for col- 
ored men anywhere in the country. The Bible classes and the 
Sunday religious meeting were the main, and almost the exclusive, 
features of the work. William A. Hunton and Jesse E. Moorland, 
colored secretaries of the International Committee, upon whom the 
burden of leadership rested, felt seriously the need of a modern 
building to serve as a model and inspiration for the erection of 
buildings for colored men in all parts of the country. In 1907 
such a building was presented to the Negroes of Columbus, Ga., 
by George Foster Peabody and his brother at a cost of about $30,000. 
This building was the expression of a life-long interest in the 
Negro race by two men who were born in the city to which the 
gift was made. A condition of the gift was that the association 
should be organized as a branch of the Central Association. This 
condition was readily complied with. Leading men of the city 
from the Mayor down took active interest in the work, and joined 
heartily in the campaign to raise $5,000 for operating expenses. 

As soon as the Columbus building was completed and opened to 
the public. Secretaries Moorland and Hunton made plans to hold 
the next annual conference of the colored men's department in this 
building. Accordingly, in the fall of 1908, the conference was held 
at Columbus. Secretaries and association leaders from all parts 
of the country met there and spent from three to four days in the 
work of the conference and in observation and inspection of the 
first modern association building for colored men. The effect of 
holding the conference in Columbus was that the leaders went back 
to their homes in all sections of the country determined to erect 
modern buildings. 

Washington was the next city after Columbus to erect a modern 
building. In response to a joint appeal by the white and colored 
men of Washington, Mr. John D. Rockefeller made a gift of 
$25,000 for a building for colored men on condition that a like 
amount be raised. The colored men promptly took up the chal- 
lenge and soon had in hand a subscription list amounting to $32,000. 
They were so much impressed by the outcome of their campaign 
that they raised their objective from $50,000 to $100,000. The 
higher amount was finally secured, colored men paying $27,000 of 
the whole amount. 

The most far-reaching and statesman-like plan of cooperation 
between white and colored people in the entire country was set in 
force on Jan. ist, 191 1, when Julius Rosenwald, the Hebrew pres- 
ident of the Sears-Roebuck Co. of Chicago, made his offer of 
$25,000 to any city in the United States that would raise $75,000 
for erecting a building and securing equipment for colored Young 
Men's Christian Associations. Up to the present time eleven cities 



' 



214 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

have met the condition, — Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, At- 
lanta, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, 
New York and Nashville. Four of the cities have completed their 
buildings, namely, Washington, Chicago, Indianapolis and Phila- 
delphia. The others are either in process of erection or planning 
to begin work soon. It is worthy of note that eleven gifts of $i,ooo 
each have been made to these buildings by colored men. One gift 
of $i,ooo was made by a colored business woman of Indianapolis. 
By the side of these colored donors who are furnishing such fine 
examples of self-help are standing scores of loyal white men and 
women of all the cities mentioned, giving of their time and means 
to push forward the work of these buildings. Ex- Vice-President 
Fairbanks took part in the Indianapolis campaign, and many prom- 
inent business men of Nashville are at work now raising the 
$45,000 that white men of Nashville have pledged to the build- 
ing for colored men. The one outstanding character in the prose- 
cution of this great work next to Mr. Rosenwald himself is Secre- 
tary J. E. Moorland who has personally directed every campaign. 

An important recent development is the work for colored men 
in some of the great industrial plants of the country. A mining 
settlement at Buxton, Iowa, maintains a $30,000 association. Ban- 
ham, Ky., is another mining camp which has a building and sup- 
ports a secretary. Secretaries are employed for lumber camps at 
Vaugn, N. C, and Bogaloosas, La. The American Cast Iron Pipe 
Co. of Birmingham, Ala., has a three-story building for its em- 
ployes. Two of the floors under the direction of a colored secre- 
tary are used for colored men, and the other floor under a white 
secretary is used for white men. There is a secretary for work 
among the 4,000 Negro employes of the great shipyard at Newport 
News, Va. The Norfolk and Western Railroad is liberal in its 
support of an association at Bluefield, W. Va., for colored employes 
of its line. 

The Student Section of the Colored Men's Department has organ- 
izations in 105 colleges and secondary schools with a total member- 
ship of approximately 7,000. These organizations have been de- 
veloped under the leadership of W. A. Hunton, who has just com- 
pleted his twenty-fifth year as an association secretary. While 
student work as a rule is done with little or no equipment, Hamp- 
ton Institute has a building recently erected at a cost of $33,000. 
This building was the gift of a white friend. The association of 
the Pennsylvania State College is carrying the budget of the first 
County secretary for colored men, Mr. C. B. Randall of Brunswick 
County, Va. The expenses of D. D. Jones, colored student secre- 
tary of the International Committee are borne by the white Young 
Men's Christian Association of Detroit. 

Deserving of more than ordinary consideration in this connec- 
tion is the splendid work that has been going on in the white col- 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 215 

leges of the South under the leadership of Secretaries W. D. 
Weatherford and A. M. Trawick. More than 15,000 white college 
men of the South during the past four years have been engaged in 
study courses that have brought them into sympathetic touch with 
Negro life. As a result of engaging in these studies hundreds of 
these men are now actively engaged in social service work for 
Negroes. 

The cooperative programme of the Y. M. C. A. is as interesting 
for its by-products as for its larger results. A better mutual un- 
derstanding has come about from the frequent coming together of 
white and black men. White men have confessed that they had 
thought it impossible for them to have real affection for black men 
until they were brought together with them in common Christian 
service. Many deep-seated prejudices have been uprooted by the 
contacts of this service. A certain Southern white man found it 
impossible to say " Mister " or " Miss " to black people until he 
was thrown into such frequent contact with cultured and refined 
ones among them, that there was no way of escape. He is now 
glad that he has been emancipated from his prejudice. 

The colored association man will continue to meet his white 
brother half way in promoting the cooperative spirit. Reciprocity 
must characterize every effort. A man loses in power and self- 
respect when he is continually served by those whom he is given 
no opportunity to serve in return. Programmes of racial uplift 
must not be made for the Negro in his absence. He must be given 
full half of consideration in every cooperative programme and he 
must be allowed to do full half of the work. 



THE WORK OF THE NATIONAL BOARD OF YOUNG 
WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS 

MRS. W. A. HUNTON, 
Washington, D. C, Student Secretary for Colored Schools, Y. W. C. A. 

With thoughts centered upon this Christian Student Convention 
for some weeks, there has been growing in the minds of many a 
certain conviction as to its opportunity and responsibility to inter- 
pret aright the call of Christianity. When we further consider that 
the young men and women chosen to form this gathering repre- 
sent our fondest hopes and ambitions for race advancement and for 
the promotion and conservation of lofty ideals, and that there is 
already the subconscious implanting of the elements of leadership 
in their natures, this opportunity and responsibility transfer them- 
selves into a sacred trust to be most carefully used for the exten- 
sion of our Lord's Kingdom here on earth. Hence one is con- 
strained to approach with hesitancy any discussion of values and 
relationships in Christian service. 



2l6 THE NEW VOICE IN R.\CE ADJUSTMENTS 

But there are some first principles without which we can hardly 
hope to attain to devotion for our own cause or to win the sMnpa- 
thetic comprehension or desire for active cooperation from others. 
The ver}- simplicity of some of these basic principles may offer an 
excuse for their so often being left unmastered. Looking for the 
larger things of life, we are apt to forget that the supreme joy 
of the Master's life and that of his followers through all the Chris- 
tian era has had its source in saving and serving men. Again, we 
find it so easy to repeat and theorize upon the command, '" Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,"" that we are prone to forget 
to live that command. 

Some years ago when the National Board of the Young ^^'omen's 
Christian Association was formulating plans for a more vital and 
satis factor}- touch with the womanhood of the world, a small band 
of Christian leaders met at Asheville, Xorth Carolina, to discuss 
the wisdom of including in this broad outlook the colored women 
of the United States. All were agreed that she needed the infu- 
sion of the Association spirit into her life. Some were not sure that 
the time was right for this particular advance : but there were some 
brave spirits who were willing to face the difficulties of finance, 
relationships and leadership involved in the extension of the move- 
ment among colored women. In the prayerful seclusion that this 
retreat afforded, the will of the Master was revealed and the Na- 
tional Board, living up to its principles. " Unto All zvomcn," sent 
forth its message to the sister within the veil, thus launching for 
her a new era of Christian living and serA-ice. 

From a few scattered associations, in schools and cities in iqo8, 
numbering altogether not more than eighteen, we have grown, 
until in 1914 the girls of ninet\--four of the leading institutions and 
the women of nineteen cities are realizing through the Association 
a strength and power hitherto undreamed. The National Board 
has not only given the impulse for this advance, but has had joy- 
ful participation in it. In the might}- recreating of the life among 
the women of the world, the song of their redemption has made 
a mighty chorus, strong with faith, and courage, which has blended 
the voice of the colored women. 

In six short vears we have seen this little band, thrilline under 
the impulse of the Association spirit, give themselves with a holy 
zeal to the breaking down of the old order and establishing in its 
place higher ideals. Association homes are no longer held in quiet 
reser\-ation for Sabbath meetings, bare lodgings give place to cozy 
well- furnished rooms and classes of all descriptions fill every avail- 
able time and space. The student secretan.- in her annual report 
says : " At the first glance there would seem to be a decline of 
spirituality in Association work because of the enthusiastic em- 
phasis put upon social service, but deeper study brings out this 
truth : while tliere is a loss of apparent religious fervor in meet- 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 217 

ings, tliere is a decided gain in application of religious principles ; 
fewer ' cut and dried ' testimonials, but more sincere though halt- 
ing expressions of faith and deep convictions ; a more personal note 
in confessions revealing greater sincerity of purpose. There is a 
new attitude not only towards spiritual things, but towards law 
and order. These evidences of a Reconstruction Period are mani- 
fested in every school where the Christian Associations have been 
unhampered in their development." 

We are, however, deeply conscious of the fact that we are at 
the beginning of Association experience and opportunity ; that the 
five thousand women and girls who have come under its influence 
are but an insignificant fraction of the 4,500,000 colored women in 
the United States. If we even add to this 5,000 some 40,000 who 
have given themselves to the promotion of other noble causes, we 
still have but one woman in every hundred who has caught the 
spirit of service to say nothing of that mighty throng across the 
ocean for whom Livingstone made his last prayer and to whom it 
is required of us to send the Gospel. A tremendous burden is 
upon us ! But it is not ours to bear alone. It is a common respon- 
sibility to be shared, like all other responsibilities, by Christians 
regardless of race or creed. 

The colored woman has perhaps been the most misunderstood, 
the most misrepresented element of American society. She has 
remained within the veil and the world has not been conscious of 
the deep aspirations of her sorrow-ladened soul. The world has 
failed to notice her as she has quietly built up the home, the school 
and the Church. Her sacrificial instincts, greater by far than in 
the men of the race, have almost been overlooked. But under the 
influence of this new enthusiasm for social service, she has had 
the veil withdrawn, and the world is beginning to understand that 
the wonderful progress of the Negro has had behind it the pro- 
pelling power of its zvomen. 

The first requisite for cooperation is understanding. A few years 
ago this seemed an impossibility so far as the two races are con- 
cerned but, perhaps, after all the Kingdom is not so far to seek, 
for in spite of racial separateness, North as well as South, white 
and colored women are finding unity in service. In nine cities, 
our Colored Young Women's Christian Associations are branches 
of the white Association. Two of these branches are in Southern 
cities with two more cities of the South ready to have this relation- 
ship. The relationship, even if at first assumed with some degree 
of fear, has always worked out to a most perfect understanding 
and increased usefulness on the part of both. Perhaps w^e have 
had no finer illustrations of growing understanding, sympathy and 
helpfulness between the women of the two races than the interest 
recently manifested by the white women of l^>irmingham in the 
wonderful membership campaign, conducted by the colored women 



2l8 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

of that city. The most enthusiastic letters that reached the Na- 
tional Headquarters were not from the colored women themselves, 
but from their white friends. 

With this experience of enthusiastic cooperation as a result of 
real understanding, we know that it is possible for a much more 
sympathetic relationship to come to pass. The gulf is not fixed. 
It must not be fixed, because upon this mutual understanding, we 
must admit if we are candid, rests largely the solution of the most 
vexing features of our race problem. The truth is that both races 
have preferred to discuss theories rather than face the problem. 
One involves thinking alone, the other calls for courageous action. 
We have known for many years that some men and women of 
the South have been facing courageously this race problem and 
now hope for a larger cooperation has given place to a certainty 
as we note among white men and women the beginning of a great 
wave of loyalty to human salvation that shall surely sweep over 
our beautiful Southland. 

The Young Women's Christian Association seeks to make body, 
mind and spirit reach their highest development. Surely this of- 
fers to every Christian woman in every community a point of con- 
tact. Their policy is adapted to meet human needs, not racial ones. 
The Christian women of any community must feel a responsibility 
for Christian progress. The life of that community cannot be 
all pure, all sweet, if any part of it is left to decay. With a keen 
desire for recreation, with a longing for friendship, with a restless- 
ness that needs expression in healthful exercise and engaging em- 
ployment and yet no opportunity for outlet or development, is it 
not more remarkable that so many colored girls are good than that 
so many are otherwise? 

The help of the white women in maintaining Young Women's 
Christian Associations for colored women in large cities and clubs 
in small centers is not only a Christian duty but a safe-guarding of 
the life of the community. There are no conventional customs that 
cannot be broken down in order to build up the Kingdom of Christ 
on earth. And yet we are conscious that this help and cooperation 
can only find its fullest expression when founded on love. Tolstoi 
has well said that " Men think there are circumstances when one 
can deal with human beings without love but there are no such 
circumstances. One may deal with things without love — one may 
cut down trees, make brick, hammer iron without love — but you 
cannot so deal with human beings." 

We are here representing various activities, according right and 
respect to each. It should not be difficult for such a group to stand 
and face the world together regardless of wealth or poverty, tra- 
ditional or race prejudices, proclaiming that the best service is^ in 
the protection and strengthening of the weak, and thus making 
real the Christian spirit. 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 219 

With an enthusiasm matchless in its power to withstand cruel 
shocks of adversity, the colored woman has moved forward these 
fifty years. There has been in her eye one vision, and in her soul 
one cry ; that vision and cry are freedom — freedom from ignorance, 
prejudice and poverty, and above all, the freedom of opportunity. 



APPENDIX 
Best Books on the Negro in America and Africa 

I. GENERAL 
Baker, Ray Stannard, Following the Color Line. Doubleday Page & 

Co. $2.00. 

Brawley, B. G., a Short History of the American Negro. Macmillan Co. 

$1.25. 
Bryce, James, The Relation of the Advanced and the Backward Races of 

Mankind. Qarenden Press. 70c. 
Commons, John R., Races and Immigrants in America. Macmillan Co. 

$1.50. 
Cromwell, J. W., Negro in American History. American Negro Academy. 

$1.50. 
Douglass, Frederick, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Hamilton- 

Ravell Co. $2.50. 
Douglass, H. Paul, Christian Reconstruction in the South. Pilgrim Press. 

$1.50. 
DowD, Jerome, The Negro Races. Macmillan Co. $2.50. 
Elwood, Charles A., Sociology and Modern Social Problems. American 

Book Co. $1.00. 
Hammond, L. H., In Black and White. Revell Co. 50c. and $1.25. 
Hart, Albert Bushnell, The Southern South. D. Appleton Co. $1.50. 
Helm, Mary, The Upward Path, Young People's Missionary Movement. 

43c. and 58c. 
Hoffman, Frederick L., Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 

American Economic Association. $1.25. 
Johnston, Sir Harry H., The Negro in the New World. Macmillan Co. 

$6.00. 
Langston, John M., From a Virginia Plantation. American Publishing 

Co. $2.00. 
Miller, Kelly, From Servitude to Service. American Unitarian Associa- 
tion. $1.25. 
Miller, Kelly, Out of the House of Bondage. Neale. $1.50. 
Miller, Kelly, Race Adjustment. Neale. $2.13. 
Murphy, Edgar Gardner, The Basis of Ascendency. Longmans, Green & 

Co. $1.60. 
Murphy, Edgar Gardner. The Present South. Macmillan Co. 6oc. 
Page, Thomas Nelson. The Negro the Southerner's Problem. Chas. Scrib- 

ner's Sons. $1.25. 
Race Relationships, Association Press. $5.00. 

1. Negro Life in the South. W. D. Weatherford. 

2. Up from Slavery. Booker T. Washington. 

3. The Story of the Negro, Vol. i. Booker T. Washington. 

4. The Story of the Negro, Vol. 2. Booker T. Washington. 

5. The Basis of Ascendency. Edgar Gardner Murphy. 

6. Race Distinctions in American Law. Gilbert T. Stevenson. 

7. The Southern South. Albert Bushnell Hart. 

RoYCE, JosiAH, Race Questions, Provincialism, and Other American Prob- 
lems. Macmillan Co. $1.25. 

221 



222 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

Sinclair, William A., The Aftermath of Slavery. Small and Maynard. 

$1.50. 
Stevenson, Gilbert T., Race Distinctions in American Law. D. Appletoa 

Co. $1.50. 
Washington, Booker T., Character Building. Doubleday Page & Co. 

$1.50. 
Washington, Booker T., My Larger Education. Doubleday Page & Co. 

$1.50. 
Washington, Booker T., The Man Farthest Down. Doubleday Page & Co. 

$1.50. 
Washington, Booker T., The Story of the Negro, 2 vols. Doubleday Page 

& Co. $3.00. 
Washington, Booker T., Up from Slavery. Doubleday Page & Co. $1.50. 
Washington, Booker T., Working with Hands. Doubleday Page & Co. 

$1.50. 
Washington and Du Bois, The Negro in the South, George W. Jacobs & 

Co. $1.00. 
Weatherford, W. D., Negro Life in the South. Association Press. 50c. 
Weatherford, W. D., Present Forces in Negro Progress. Association Press. 

50c. 

II. POETRY AND FICTION 

Chestnutt, Chas. W., The House Behind the Cedars. Houghton-Mifflin 

Co. $1.50. 
Du Bois, W. E. B., The Souls of Black Folk. A. C. McQurg. $1.20. 
Dunbar, Paul Laurence, Complete Poems. Dodd, Mead & Co. $2.00. 
Dunbar, Paul Laurence, Lyrics of Love and Laughter. Dodd, Mead & Co. 

$1.25. 
Dunbar, Paul Laurence, Lyrics of Lowly Life. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.25. 
Ovington, Mary, Half a Man. Longmans, Green & Co. $1.00. 
Rayner, Emma, Handicapped Among the Free. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.50. 
Work, Frederick J. and John W., Jr., Folk Songs of the American Negro. 

Work Bros. & Hart. 25c. and soc. 

III. SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS 
The Atlanta University Publications 

No. I. Mortality among Negroes in Cities. 1896. Out of print. 

Mortality among Negroes in Cities. (2d edition, abridged, 1903.) 
2Sc. 
No. 2. Social and Physical Conditions of Negroes in Cities. 1897. 25c. 
No. 3. Some Efforts of Negroes for Social Betterment. 1898. Out of 

Print. 
No. 4. The Negro in Business. 1899. Out of print. 
No. 5. The College-bred Negro. 1900. Out of print. 

The College-bred Negro. (2d edition, abridged, 1902.) 25c. 
No. 6. The Negro Common School. 1901. Out of print. 
No. 7. The Negro Artisan. 1902. 75c. 
No. 8. The Negro Church. 1903. $1.50. 
No. 9. Notes on Negro Crime. 1904. 50c. 

No. 10. A Select Bibliography of the Negro American. 1905. 25c. 
No. II. Health and Physique of the Negro American. 1906. $1.50. 
No. 12. Economic Co-operation among Negro Americans. 1907. $1.00. 
No. 13. The Negro American Family. 1908. 750. 

No. 14. Efforts for Social Betterment among Negro Americans. 1909. 75c. 
No. 15. The College-bred Negro American. 1910. 75c. 
No. 16. The Common School and the Negro American. 1911. 75c. 



THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 223 

No. 17. The Negro American Artisan. 1912. 750. 

Baker, Ray Stannard, The Atlanta Riot. The PhiUips Publishing Co, 

EwiNG, QuiNCY, The Heart of the Race Problem. The Atlantic Monthly Co. 

Haynes, George Edmund, The Negro at Work in New York City. Col- 
umbia University Studies in Political Science. $1.25. 

Southern Sociolxxjical Congress, The Human Way. 

WooFTER, T. J., Jr., The Negroes of Athens, Georgia. Bulletin of the Uni- 
versity of Georgia. 

Wright, R. R., The Negro in Pennsylvania. University of Pennsylvania. 

IV. AFRICA. 

Arnot, Frederick Stanley, Garenganze; or, Seven Years' Pioneer Mission 
Work in Central Africa. F. H. Revell Co. $1.25. 

Blaikie, William Garden, The Personal Life of David Livingstone. F. H. 
Revell Co. $1.50. 

Blyden, Edward Wilmot, Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. Lon- 
don. Whittingham. 7s. 6d. 

Casalis, E., My Life in Basuto Land. London. Religious Tract Society. 

Crawford, D., Thinking Black; 22 Years Without a Break in the Long 

Grass of Central Africa. London. Morgan & Scott. 7s. 6d. 
Darlow, Thomas Herbert, God's Image in Ebony. London. Young Peo- 
ple's Missionary Movement. 6s. 
Dennett, R. E., At the Back of the Black Man's Mind. Macmillan & Co. 

$3.50. 
Dennett, R. E., Nigerian Studies; or, The Religious and Political System 

of the Yoruba. Macmillan & Co. $2.75. 
Du Plessis, J., A History of Christian Missions in South Africa. Long- 
mans, Green and Co. $3.50. 
Dye, Mrs. Royal J., Bolenge; a Story of Gospel Triumphs on the Congo, 

Foreign Christian Missionary Society. 50c. 
Elliot, Sir Charles Norton Edgecumbe, The East Africa Protectorate. 

London, E. Arnold. New York, Longmans, Green & Co. $5.00. 
Ellenberger, D. Fred, History of the Basuto Ancient and Modern. London. 

Caxton Publishing Co. 7s. 6d. 
Evans, Maurice Smethurst, Black and White in South East Africa, a Study 

in Sociology. Longmans, Green & Co. $2.25. 
Eraser, Donald, The Future of Africa. London. Church Missionary Soci- 
ety. 2S. . , , 
Eraser, Donald, Winning a Primitive People; sixteen years work 
among the warlike tribe of the Ngoni and the Senga and Tumbuka peo- 
ples of Central Africa. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50. 
Fyfe, H. Hamilton, South Africa To-day. London. E. Nash. io.y. 6d. 
Gerdener, G. B. a., Studies in the Evangelization of South Africa. Long- 
mans, Green & Co., 1911. $1.00. 
GiFFEN, J. Kelly, The Egyptian Sudan. F. H. Revell Co. $1.00. 
Hamilton, J. Taylor, Twenty Years of Pioneer Missions in Nyasaland. 

Bethlehem, Pa., Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. $1.00. 
Harris. John H., Dawn in Darkest Africa. E. P. Dutton & Co. $3.50- 
Hattersley, Charles W., The Baganda at Home. London. The Religious 

Tract Society. 5^. 
Hawker, George, The Life of George Grenfell, Congo Missionary and Ex- 
plorer. F. H. Revell Co. $2.00. 
HiLTON-SiMPSON. Melville W., Land and Peoples of the Kasai ; bcmg a 
narrative of a two years' journey among the cannibals of the equatorial 
forest and other savage tribes of the Southwestern Congo. A. C. Mc- 
Clurg & Co. $3.50. 



224 THE NEW VOICE IN RACE ADJUSTMENTS 

Johnston, S:r Harry Hamilton, Britain Across the Seas; Africa. London. 

National Society's Depository. lo^. 6d. 
JuNOD, Henri A., The Life of a South African Tribe. London. D. Nutt. 

2 V. 17s. 
KiDD, Dudley, The Essential Kafir. Macmillan & Co. $6.00. 
KuMM, Hermann Karl Wilhelm, Khont-hon-Nofer, the Lands of Ethi- 
opia. London and Edinburgh. Marshall Brothers. $1.50. 
KuMM, Hermann Karl Wilhelm, The Sudan. London. Marshall 

Brothers. 3s. 6d. 
Lagden, Sir Godfrey Yeatman, The Basutos; the Mountaineers and Their 

Country. D. Appleton & Co. 2 v. $6.00. 
Lloyd, Albert B., In Dwarf Land and Cannibal Country. C. Scribner's 

Sons. $1.50. 
A. M. Mackay, Pioneer Missionary of the Church Missionary Society to 

Uganda. By his sister. G. H. Doran Co. $1.50. 
MiLLiGAN, Robert H., The Fetish Folk of West Africa. F. H. Revell & Co. 

$1.50. 

Morel, Edmund Deville, Nigeria, Its Peoples and Its Problems. London. 
Smith, Elder & Co. io.y. 6d. 

MuLLiNS, J. D., The Wonderful Story of Uganda. London. Church Mis- 
sionary Society, is. 6d. 

Nassau, Robert Hamill, Fetichism in West Africa. C. Scribner's Sons. 
$2.50. 

Naylor, Wilson Samuel, Daybreak in the Dark Continent. Young Peo- 
ple's Missionary Movement, soc. 

Noble, Frederic Perry, The Redemption of Africa; a story of civilization. 
F. H. Revell Co. 2 v. $4.00. 

Page, Jesse, The Black Bishop: Samuel Adjai Crowther. F. H. Revell Co. 
$2.00. 

Parsons, Ellen C, A Life for Africa; Rev. Adolphus Qemens Good. F. 
H. Revell Co. $1.25. 

Robinson, Charles Henry, Hausaland; or, Fifteen Hundred Miles Through 
the Central Soudan. London. S. Lovir, Marston & Co. 14.^. 

RoscoE, John, The Baganda ; An Account of Their Native Customs and Be- 
liefs. Macmillan & Co. $5.00. 

Smith, H. Sutton, "Yasuku," the Very Heart of Africa. Marshall 
Brothers. $1.50. 

South African Native Races Committee, London. The South African Na- 
tives ; Their Progress and Present Condition. E. P. Dutton & Co. 
$2.00. 

Stewart, James, Dawn in the Dark Continent. F. H. Revell Co. $2.00. 

Stow, George W., The Native Races of South Africa; a history of the in- 
trusion of the Hottentots and Bantu into the hunting grounds of the 
Bushmen. The Macmillan Co. $6.50. 

Theal, George McCall, The Yellow and Dark-Skinned People of Africa 
South of the Zambesi. London. S. Sonnenschein & Co. io.r. 6d. 

Thornton, D. M., Africa Waiting. Student Volunteer Movement. 25c. 

Tucker, Alfred Robert, Eighteen Y'ears in Uganda and East Africa. New 
York. Longmans, Green & Co., 191 1. $2.10. 

Walker, F. Deaville, The Call of the Dark Continent. London. Wes- 
leyan Methodist Missionary Society, is. 6d. 

Weeks, John H., Among the Congo Cannibals: Experiences. Impressions, 
and Adventures during a thirty years' sojourn amongst the Boloki and 
other Congo tribes. J. B. Lippincott Co. $3.50. 

Wells, James, Stewart of Lovedale. F. H. Revell Co. $1.50. 



INDEX 






i 



I 



«i 



INDEX 



Accommodations, in railways and restau- 
rants, 28. ,. , J X 

Advertisements, and the editor s duty, 
197. 

Africa, call to church membership, 208; 
challenge of Christian world, 207; con- 
tinent of emergencies, 201; continent of 
empires, iisf; early civilization of, 130; 
enlistment of educated Negroes for, 201; 
Negroes' remote fatherland, 145; parti- 
tioned, lis; place in Biblical history, 
i3of; population and civilization of, 116; 
primitive people in, 201; redemption of 
beset with difficulties, 206; response of 
to the Gospel, 120; rivers and railways 
of, ii7f; wealth and economic develop- 
ment of, ii6f. 

African missionary, diversified work of, 
204. 

Africans, physical development of, 118. 

Alleys, and home life, 76f; producing char- 
acter, 78; residence in, 80; social indict- 
ment of, 81 ; transformation of, impossi- 
ble, 36. 

American Negro, and missionary duty, 
202; sacrificial work of, 207f. 

"Apostle of Good Sense," 179. 



Baptist Church, evangelistic meetings of, 
i84f. ^ ^„ 

Barton, Arthur J., 171; quoted, 168. 

Basketry, for boys' clubs, 138. 

Bathhouse, for colored children, 138. 

Belgian soldiers, in Africa, 125. 

Belgium, King of, 132. 

Bennett, Miss Belle H., i. 

Benwenya, an African hunter, 122. 

Bible Conference, of Atlanta, 185. 

Birthright, Charles and Betty, memorial 
building of, 183. 

Bishop, Samuel S., 190. 

Boarders, in Negro homes, 76. 

Bothwell Brig, battle of, 47. 

Bowen, Anthony, 211. 

Bowen, J. W. E., discussion of "The Call 
of the Christian Pulpit," 93. 



Call of the Student Conference, i; to 
African work, 132; to the ministry, 93; 
to missionary leadership, 208; to serv- 
ice, 95. 

Carey, Lott, and the Gospel in Liberia, 

202f. 

Carey, William, 31. 

Caste system, of India, 189. 

Characteristics of Negro religion, 55. 

Church, enlisted for reform, 64; inclusive 
democracy of, 37; message of, 63; rela- 
tion to childhood, 97; rivals of, 102; 
social message of, 62. 

Church, unprecedented opportunity of in 
foreign countries, 21; urged to quicken 
pace, 25. 



Churches, and the ownership of homes, 
86; antagonize each other, 87; for 
Negroes in the South, 141; value of, 
142. . . , 

Clinton, Bishop George W., discussion of 
"Evangelism," 107. 

"Clean up Day," 166. 

Continuation Committee, 8. . ■ , 

Cooperation, based on Christian principles, 
lof; based on understanding, 38; be- 
tween white and colored pastors, 183; 
between white and Negro in the South, 
129; between privileged members of 
both races, 73; forms of, 174; fostered 
by Southern men, 171; giving strength 
to the Church, 106; in education, 163; 
motive and attitude of, 175; not se- 
cured through destruction, 61; of edu- 
cational leaders, 59; promoted by stu- 
dent conference, 186; purity and 
righteousness, of, i8of; purpose of, 178; 
racial and denominational, 65 ; signs of 
growth of, 161; sought by Negroes, 163; 
South's part in, 60; Southern white peo- 
ple in, 168; white and Negro women 
in, 165; work of Church in, 189. 
Cooperative movements, country churches 
in, 139, 144; in Atlanta, 184; reciprocal, 
180. 
Country Church, and community service, 
i46f, 149; a vision of the task of, 149. 
Country churches, capital invested in, 

152; the social centers, 148. 
Country missions, 12. . 

Country Superintendents of Education, 

175- ^ , . 

Commission, on enlistment for work in 

Africa, 201; on the ministry, 12, 209; 

Southern universities on race relations, 

171. 
Crawford, Dan, 34. 
Crime, among Negroes, 28; not among 

Conference subjects, 11; reported in 

daily papers, 162. 
Criminal, interested in reforrnation of, 39; 

propagated through social life, 168. 

D 

Davis, Jackson, and Negro Education, 175; 

pioneer in rural school work, 163. 
Day nursery, need of, 156. 
Death rate, of children, 170, 191. 
Decatur Street, problems of, 47. 
Delegates, classified by states, 2; congratu- 
lated, 26; justice and fair play of, 26; 

in colleges and institutions, 3ff; urged 

to have faith, 26. 
Denominational boards, work of, in Africa, 

203. 
Dillard, James H., i; and the University 

Commission on race questions, 164; 

Negro Education, work in, 175; work 

of Jeanes Board, 163. 
Discipline, in Negro churches, 140. 
Dix, Dorothea, 31. 
DuBois, W. E. B., 7. 



Edinburgh Conference, 63. 
227 



228 



INDEX 



Editors, and daily news stories, 196; re- 
marks to, 194; sentiment created by, 
i94f; Student Conference, and, 13; war 
news, and, 196. 

Education, a new demand upon the pul- 
pit, 103; for the exceptional members 
of both races, 60; not confined to in- 
dustrial training, 58; not separation 
from one's neighbors, tz; the agency of 
progress, 57; the joint responsibility of 
white and Negro, 59; the white man's 
obligation, 59. 

Educational Institutions, equipment of, 
210; in regeneration of Africa, 205. 

Emancipation Proclamation, 49. 

Ethics, Catholicism of, 130; harmonized 
with nurture, 45; of Jesus applied to 
slavery, 42; not always the purpose of 
ethnology, 43; the Twentieth Century in- 
terpretation of, 44. 

"Ethiopian Movement," 206. 

Evangelism, appeal of, to Negro, 208; de- 
fined, 108; emphasis upon, 22; exam- 
ples of success in, 79; factors in, 109; 
message of, 108; not the only debt to 
Africa, 131; object, instrument and 
agent of, no; relation to revivalism, 
108; relation to Student Conference, 
107; training in, for African work, 204; 
work of in Africa, 206. 



Fairbanks, ex- Vice-President, 213. 

Family life, socialization of, 20sf. 

Ferguson, Bishop Samuel i)., 204. 

Fernandias, Mrs. S. C, 166. 

Flipper, Bishop J. b., 1. 

Flynn, R. O., discussion of "Cooperation 

Between Pastors of White and Colored 

Churches," 183. 
Ford, John E., discussion of "After the 

Conference — What?", 15. 



Gilbert, John W., discussion of "The 
Southern Negroes' Debt and Responsi- 
bility to Africa," 129; in missionary 
pioneering, 204. 

Governing powers, attitude of, in Africa, 
206. 



H 



Hammond, J. D., discussion of, "The Re- 
lation of the S-^uthern White Man to 
the Education of the Negro in Church 
Colleges," 57; in Negro Education, 175. 

Hammond, Mrs. J. D., discussion of, "The 
Building of Homes," 69; in Negro Edu- 
cation, 175. 

Hart, Sir Robert, 23. 

Hartzell, Bishop J. C, discussion of, "The 
Continent of Africa," 115. 

Haygood, Bishop Atticus G., quoted, loi. 

"Haystack Prayer Meeting," 137. 

Health, problems of, and the country 
church, 144; secured by cooperation, 
166. 

Helm, Miss Mary, 174. 

Home life, a barometer of community at- 
mosphere, 69; in rented houses, 75; in- 
fluenced by alleys and minor streets, 80; 
of Negroes in the city, 12; spiritual 
bankruptcy of, 69; the eternal principles 
of, 86. 

Hope, Mrs. John, discussion of "The 
Work of the Neighborhood Union," 153; 
white women of Atlanta in work, 165. 

Hope, President John, i. 

Housing, conditions in, 22; of city Ne- 
groes, 154. 

Hugo, Victor, 115. 



Hunton, W. A., and the Atlanta riot, 

172; Secretary, 212. 
Hunton, Mrs. W. A., discussion of, "The 

Work of the National Board," 214. 
Hyde, DeWitt, quoted, 65. 



Ibanze, industrial school at, 128. 

Imes, G. Lake, discussion of, "The Serv- 
ice of the Country Church in Helping 
the Negro," 146. 

Industry, race groups in, 35. 

Industrial school for colored girls, 144. 

Industrial training, permanence of in 
Africa, 205. 

Inspectors for Negro homes, 85. 

Institute for Negro Christian workers, 194. 

Integrity of Negro race, 38. 

International Committee, 212. 

International cooperation, progress of, 
21 1. 

International Convention in Toronto, 211. 



Japan, conference of religious leaders, 23. 

Jeanes Board, 163. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 83. 

Jelk, W. D., 182. 

Johnston, Bishop J. Abbott, 204. 

Johnston, General George D., 212. 

Jones, Thomas Jesse, discussion of "The 
Cooperation of Southern White People," 
168, and "The Reality and Righteous- 
ness in the Training of Christian Work- 
ers," 65. 

Jones, D. D., discussion of "Resolutions 
of the Conference on Securing Strong 
and Able Students for the Ministry," 
209; Student Secretary, 214. 

Jones, Robert E., i; discussion of "The 
Qualifications of the Ministry," 34. 

Judaism, exclusiveness of, in national his- 
tory, 34. 

K 

Kassai, an evangelized community in, 126; 

populous valley of, 120. 
Katawba, an African Daniel, 124. 
Kindergarten, need of, 156. 



Labor, dignified by Church teaching, 143. 
Lambuth, Bishop Walter R., i, i95- 
Landlords, and Negro houses, 154; and 

orderly progress, 83; responsibility of, 

82. 
Langdon, William Chauncey, 211. 
Lapsley, Samuel Norval, i2of. 
Laney, Miss Lucy, i. 
Law, enforcement of, 85; indefinite, 83; 

omissions of, 84; standardized, 85. 
Laymen's Missionary Movement, of At- 
lanta, 185. 
Leaders, meeting at Asheville, 215; too few 

in pulpit, 209. 
Leadership, of colored women, 215; the 

task of, in Africa, 208. 
Legislation, defective, 84. 
Little, John, discussion of "City Missions 

for Colored People," 137; in Negro 

Education, 175. 
Little, Mrs. John, 175. 
Livingstone, David, faithful heroism of 

followers, 176; influence over Stanley, 

hi; the Martyr of Africa, 171. 
Lodge, Sir Oliver, quoted, 45. 
Luebo, Presbyterian Mission in, 125. 

M 

Macon County, survey of Churches in, 
145- 



I 



INDEX 



229 



Materialism, destructive of the spiritual 
sense, 62. 

McCulloch, J. E., discussion of "Coopera- 
tion of White and Negro Ministers for 
Social Service," 188. 

Medical Missions, the field of, in Africa, 
205. 

Medici, Lorenzo di, 23. 

Membership of Negro Churches, 51, 100. 

Method of the Conference, 10. 

Migration, not a race character of Ne- 
groes, 81. 

Miller, Kelley, quoted, 107. 

Mining centers, and the spread of vice, 
207. 

Ministers, and a campaign of evangelism, 
179; cooperating for social services, 
188; demanded for Africa, 132; ex- 
change of pulpits of, 189; immorality 
and ignorance of, 105; promoting under- 
standing, 186; the parties in coopera- 
tion, 178; white and Negro in preach- 
er's meeting, 193. 

Ministry, American Negroes in, 100; an 
inviting field for educated Negroes, 96; 
and business equipment, 106; and mod- 
ern infidelity, 103; and modern reforms, 
103; and secret orders, 105; and the 
Catholic Church, 104; and the social 
and religious life, 209; asked to coop- 
erate. 13; capable candidates for, 106; 
compensation of, 95; credentials of, 99; 
facing new conditions, loi; ignorant but 
successful, 100; intellectual equipment 
of, 90: moral character of, 98; prob- 
lems of weakness of, 102; qualifica- 
tions of, 96; surrendering to lower 
standards, 104; the need and service of, 
97; training for country work, 150. 

Missionaries, type of, needed in Africa, 
119; the African problem, 203f. 

Missionary boards, and employment of 
Negro missionaries, 2o6f. 

Missions, Christian, importance of work 
in Asia and Africa, 25. 

Mitchell, Dr. S. C, i, 171. 

Modesty, necessary in race progress, 27. 

Mohammedanism, the peril of Africa, 201 ; 
treatment of races, 173. 

Moody, D. L., 33. 

Moreland, Jesse E., 212. 

Morning Watch, 6ff. 

Moton, Major Robert R., i, 184; discus- 
sion of "Signs of Growing Coopera- 
tion," 161. 

Mott, Dr. John R., i, 171, 26; quoted, 8, 
14; discussion of "The Present World 
Situation," 21. 



N 



National Housing Association, 156. 

National Negro Business League, 164. 

Negro Church, ability of self-government 
in, 50; and politics, 53; improvement in 
religious service, 53; promoter of race 
progress, 52; the center of spiritual 
power, 54. 

Negro health handbook, 167. 

Negro organization society, 166. 

Negro woman, deserving courtesy, 88; en- 
thusiasm of character, 218; police ma- 
trons, 186; recreation of, 217. 

Noble, Frederick Perry, 203. 

Non- Christian peoples, consolidation 
against Christian ideals, 22. 

Ntumba, the girl who ate her mother, 120. 



Objects of the Conference, i, 11 
Ogden, Robert C, 163. 
Owsley, Benjamin F., 204. 



Page, Ambassador Walter, 174. 

Pastors, absent from churches, 130; ex- 
change of visits, 86; increased efficiency 
of, 210; resident in a community, 148, 
21 1. 

Peabody, George Foster, 212. 

Physicians, call for, in African work, 132; 
in city inissions, 137. 

Pickens, William, discussion of "Christi- 
anity as a Basis of Common Citizen- 
ship," 34. 

Play, among Negro children, 77. 

Playground for colored children, 138. 

Politics, race participation in, 36. 

Poteat, Edwin M., discussion of "The 
Contribution of the Negro Race to the 
Interpretation of Christianity," 54. 

Prejudice, and a Christ-like charity, 188; 
between ministers, 178, 193; clue to, 
167; unjust and destructive, 27, 44. 

"Present World Situation, The," address 
by Dr. John R. Mott, 21. 

Presbyterian Church and Negro Educa- 
tion, 183. 

Probation officers for Negroes, 186. 

Public schools encouraged by churches, 
143- 

R 

Race, bitter hatred of in Turkey, 173; 
contact of lower elements of, 98; hatred 
of a misfortune, 29; interpretation of 
Christianity, 9, 56; patriotism of and 
Africa, 208; pride of, a malignant virus, 
42; progress of, in last half century, 
62; related to church, 48. 

Races, mingling of brings out best or 
worst qualities, 22; segregation of im- 
practicable, 23; amalgamation of, dan- 
gerous, 23; education of, not sufficient. 

Registration, of Conference delegates, 2. 

Rockefeller, John D., 213. 

Robinson, Dr. Stuart, 211. 

Roman, Dr. C. V., discussion of "The 

Church in Relation to Growing Race 

Pride," 40. 
Rosenwald, Julius, 184, 21 r. 
Rural improvement, the programme of the 

Church, 151. 
Rural problems in Church papers, 198. 



Salary, of country preacher, 149; of min- 
isters, 96f; not an inducement, 95. 

Sanders, Dr. Frank K., discussion of 
"Enlistment of Educated Negroes for 
Work in Africa," 198; "On Securing 
Strong and Able Students for the Min- 
istry," 209. 

Scroggs, W. O., 168, 171. 

Scott, Bishop Isaac B., 204. 

Segregation, contrasted with separation, 
11; through racial antipathy, 79. 

Service, badge of sovereignty, 28; dis- 
tinction of, 42; opportunities for, 94; 
through allegiance to Christ, 109; work 
in progress, 27. 

Sermons in Church newspapers, I97f. 

Sewing schools, 138. 

Sheppard, Dr. W. H., 78, 204; discussion 
of "The Response of Africa to the Gos- 
pel," 120. 

Sibley, J. L., 175. 

Slaves, treatment of, in Africa, 120. 

Small, Bishop John B., 204. 

Smith, Dr. Egbert W., discussion of "The 
Challenge of I'aith," 29. 

Snedecor, Dr. James G., 175; discussion 
of "Ministers in Cooperation," 176. 



230 



INDEX 



Social clinics in theological seminaries, 

210. 

Social ethics, of the alley, 80. 

Social integrity, 28. 

Social order, the ideal of, 192. 

Social religion, the theory of, 64. 

Social salvation, in the Church, 191; the 
failure of the Church, 192. 

Social service, secured by white and 
Negro ministry, 188; the welfare of 
both races, 191; training schools for, 
194. 

Social training, a preparation for office 
holders, 86. 

Society, creating personality, 82; responsi- 
ble for homes, 8 if. 

Southern Methodist Church, and Negro 
membership, 48, 190. 

Southern Sociological Congress, 164, 168, 
171, 186. 

Stelzle, Charles, 63. 

Stewart, Dr. James, 204. 

Stillman Institute, 183. 

Sunday Schools, in Negro Churches, 1^2; 
minister's duty to, 97, 102; teachers in, 
"jT,, 142; white teachers in, 180. 



Teachers, in the home, 73 ; in Sunday 
school, "Jit 142, 180; necessity of Afri- 
can dialect, 132. 

Thirkield, Bishop W. P., discussion of 
"The Present Weaknesses of the Minis- 
try Squarely Faced," 100. 

Tobias, C. H., discussion of "Present 
Phases of Cooperative Work," 211. 

Tolstoi, quoted, 218. 

Trades unionism in South Africa, 207. 

Training of the country preachers, 150. 

Trawick, Mrs. Arch, discussion of "The 
Social Message of the Church," 62. 

Trawick, A. M., 214; discussion of "Evil 
Conditions in the City and the Larger 
Responsibility," 74; of "The Negro Stu- 
dent Conference," 8. 



Vocabulary, acquired through newspapers, 

169. 
Vodoo among American Negroes, 100. 

w 

Walker, C. T., discussion of "The Negro 
Church as a Medium for Race Expres- 
sion," 50. 

Walker, T. C, discussion of "How We 
May Improve Our Colored Churches in 
the Country," 139. 

Washington, Booker T., 163, 164; discus- 
sion of "The Basis of Race Progress in 
the South," 26. 

Weatherford, W. D., 171, 214; quoted, 
168; discussion of "Signs of Growing 
Interest on the Part of the Southern 
White Man," 172; and "Suggestions for 
the Conservation of the Conference," 
16. 

White, W. Woods, 184. 

Williams, Sir George, 212. 

Winton, G. B.. discussion of "Remarks to 
the Editors, 194. 

World, one great neighborhood, 22; a 
whispering gallery, 22. 

World's Student Christian Federation, 8. 

Wu Tingfang, 48. 



Young Men's Christian Association, build- 
ing in Atlanta, 184; buildings in eleven 
cities, 2i3f; colored men's department, 
2i3f; cooperative programme of, 214; 
foreign department, 204; pastor's duty 
to, 73; present phases of cooperatire 
work, 211; schools and colleges, in, 
210; student, 12; students in, 174; study 
classes, of, 171. 

Young Women's Christian Association, 
colored women in, zisf, 217; foreign 
department, 204; National Board, 215; 
student, 12. 



Zappo-Zaps, 126. 



If 65 



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